Studying film

Studying Film

Studying the Media Series General Editor: Tim O'Sullivan

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Studying Film Nathan Abrams (Wentworth College) Ian Bell (West Herts College) Jan Udris (Middlesex University and Birkbeck College)

A member of the Hodder Headline Group LONDON Co-published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press Inc., New York

First published in Great Britain in 2001 by Arnold, a member of the Hodder Headline Group, 338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH http://www.arnoldpublishers.com Co-published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press Inc., 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY10016 © 2001 Nathan Abrams, Ian Bell and Jan Udris All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without either prior permission in writing from the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying. In the United Kingdom such licences are issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency: 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1POLP. The advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of going to press, but neither the authors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Contents Preface

vii

Acknowledgements

viii

Illustrations and Tables

ix

Introduction

1

1 Cinema as Institution

5

1 Hollywood Cinema 2 Production, Distribution and Exhibition

7 27

3 Cinema, Audiences and Society

46

4 Cinema, the Media and Globalization

62

2 Film as Text

73

5 Film Technology

75

6 The Language of Film

92

7 Early Cinema and Film Form

117

8 Mainstream and Alternative Film Form

132

3 Critical Approaches to Film 9 Authorship

153 155

10 Genre

174

11 Stars

191

12 Meaning and Spectatorship

206

4 Film Movements and National Cinema

231

13 British Cinema

233

14 World Cinema and National Film Movements

253

15 Alternative Cinema and Other Film Styles

276

Further Resources

293

Glossary

297

Index

309

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Preface The field of Film Studies is already large but is still growing in popularity. An increasing number of schools, colleges and universities are also adopting film as an area of study. Numerous courses are devoted to the study of aspects of film and film history and many disciplines are also actively integrating the use of film, among them Media Studies, English, Historical Studies, American Studies and Cultural Studies, to name just a few. But do we need yet another book on Film Studies? While there are any number of academic texts covering many different areas of Film Studies, there are relatively few textbooks which explain basic concepts in a lucid manner suitable for students at the very beginning of their studies. For example, at the time of writing only a single textbook is available for British A level students. Studying Film provides an alternative core text for the new AS/A-Level specification in Film Studies. The text is also designed to provide a useful tool for undergraduate students both in Film Studies and cognate degree courses. It will also assist teachers of Film Studies and those with a general interest in film alike, providing additional information outside the syllabus's scope for those wishing to learn more.

Acknowledgements We would like to thank the many people who in various ways have helped in the development and completion of this book. They include family and friends, colleagues and students, readers, Tim O'Sullivan, Lesley Riddle, Emma Heyworth-Dunn and the team at Arnold. Their contributions range from patience and understanding to help and advice. We would also like to thank Kobal and the BFI for permission to reproduce photographs.

Illustrations and Tables 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4

RKO: disbanded in 1957

1.6

in the background

Casablanca: the star system at work

6.6 The 180 degree rule

The Ten Commandments: an early

6.7 The 30 degree rule

blockbuster

7.1 The first camera and projection

Jaws: consolidated the blockbuster mentality

1.5

parents decide his future as he plays

system: the c/nematographe 7.2 Company logos: American

Apocalypse Now: Coppola directs

Mutoscope and Biograph, Vitagraph,

Brando

and the Edison Company

Do the Right Thing: independent or

7.3 The Biograph Girl, Florence

major studio project? 2.1

Bond films have typically relied on

Lawrence 7.4 Journey to the Moon (1902): an early fantasy film with extensive use

product placement to recoup production costs 2.2 2.3

Director and camera operator at

of tableau shots 7.5

Grandma's Reading Glass (1900): an

work on /Apocalypse Now

early example of an extreme close

Monty Python, swearing and

up shot

certification

7.6

The Great Train Robbery (1903): an

2.4

Free publicity is essential to film

unusual shot which has no relation

promotion

to the narrative but serves to remind

3.1

The BBFC age certificates

the audience of the presence of the

4.1

Columbia: an old company in a modern world

4.2

camera 7.7

The Tramp (1915): effective use of

8.1

Quentin Tarantino makes play with

8.2

An everyday traffic jam in Godard's

9.1

Godard's innovation, Sven Nykvists's

Sony: a vertically integrated multinational conglomerate with

characterization and empathy

media cross-over for synergy 5.1

Early Technicolor was a major

narrative in Pulp Fiction

attraction 5.2 5.3

Metropolis: futuristic technology

Weekend photography: A bout de souffle

2001: a celebration of space technology

9.2

Editing problems: Jagger and Fox in Are we all voyeurs? Rear Window

6.1

A typical lighting set up

6.2

Mlse en scene and shot composition

9.3

in Some Like it Hot

9.4

6.3 The five main shot sizes 6.4

Psycho: the unbalanced Norman Bates

6.5

Citizen Kane and deep focus: Kane's

Performance Quentin Tarantino or 'Quentin Tarantino'? 10.1 Unforgiven: western location, props and costume 10.2 Double Indemnity: low key lighting

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X

and a femme fatale with murder in

bike 14.4 Jean-Paul Belmondo in A bout de souffle

11.1 Marilyn Monroe. During the studio era stars were seen as little more

14.5 Japan enters the world stage with The Seven Samurai

than commodities; economic capital to be exploited

14.6 Chungking Express: Hong Kong

11.2 Mary Pickford: early star power 11.3 Sylvester Stallone: embodiment of

streetlife 14.7 A child dies in Rather Panchali: the

1980s Reaganism 11.4 Kate Winslet: in some ways a star, in

neorealist influence on Indian cinema 14.8 T/7ai: exploring customs through storytelling

others not? 12.1 Peeping Tom: too challenging for its

Tables

14.3 Bicycle Thieves: a hard life without a

mind 10.3 Alien: gender role reversal

and

15.1 Un chien andalou: the shock of Surrealism

time 12.2 L'Age d'or: sexual dynamite in code

15.2 Henry has a problem in Eraserhead

12.3 Plato's cave

15.3 Man with a Movie Camera: early

12.4 Dirty Harry Callaghan: whose identification?

documentary experiments 15.4 Maya Deven's Meshes of the Afternoon: American avant garde

12.5 Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer

cinema

Blondes: who is she performing for? 12.6 Scream: Casey answers the phone

15.5 A question of murder: three women

13.1 The Channel Four logo

against a man in A Question of

13.2 In Which We Serve: class unity

Silence

during wartime

15.6 Andy Warhol's Chelsea Girls: no narrative, no direction

13.3 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and the angry young man: 'What I'm

15.7 The Dogme 95 Manifesto

out for is a good time. All the rest is propaganda.'

Tables

13.4 Chariots of Fire: celebrating the 1980s British film renaissance?

2.1

Major UK exhibitors

13.5 Trainspotting: the advance of British

2.2

Cinema screens in the UK, 1950-99

cinema... 13.6 Brief Encounter: social class and

3.1

UK cinema admissions, 1933-98

3.2

Who goes to the cinema? UK cinema screens and admissions, 1960-98

sexual restraint 14.1 The Cabinet of Dr Caligari: expressing insanity 14.2 Battleship Potemkin: 2 shots indicating Eisenstein's graphic conflict

3.3

Frequency of UK cinema-going 1998

8.1

Story and plot information

12.1 Roland Barthes' narrative codes 14.1 Criteria for defining national cinema

Introduction Why study film? Shouldn't films be enjoyed rather than studied? Doesn't studying films destroy their entertainment value? Arguably film was the major art form and entertainment of the twentieth century and shows no sign of giving up this status as we enter the twentyfirst. Most of us have been watching films since childhood and have consequently developed an informal literacy in the language, grammar and syntax of film. Studying film can help to formalize and deepen this informal cineliteracy, as well as broadening the medium's entertainment value. The increasing popularity of academic and specialist film journals, as well as of TV programmes and documentaries about the making of films, indicates this. Studying film can also develop an understanding of production techniques, how films communicate meaning, how we as audiences both respond to films and influence the types of films made, and how the industry functions in terms of ownership, control, finance, marketing and exhibition. How to study film? Film can be studied within three key but interrelated areas: industry, text and audiences. Films can be studied as cultural products, texts that carry particular values and beliefs which are open to a number of different interpretations. They can powerfully affect or influence us, their audience, while satisfying our desires. Films can also be regarded as an integral part of the global media industry and thus are central to the economic activities of an increasingly concentrated range of multinational conglomerates. The field of Film Studies is already large but is still growing in popularity. The GCE Advanced Level in the subject has already been running for several years and an increasing number of universities are also adopting film as an area of study. In many universities, a range of second and third year modules are devoted to the study of aspects of film and film history and many disciplines are also actively integrating the use of film, such as Media Studies, English, Historical Studies, American Studies and Cultural Studies, to name just a few. Studying Film is aimed at students taking such courses. It will also assist teachers and those with a general interest in film alike, providing additional information for those wishing to learn more. Studying Film aims to aid systematic study of cinema and film based on the key concepts, terms and issues that have informed Film Studies and film criticism. It focuses on how cinema functions as an institution for the production and distribution of social knowledge and entertainment, the very specific ways in which film images and sounds generate meaning, and the relationship between audiences and cinema as institution, as films, as texts. Although most attention will be paid to dominant forms of popular cinema - Hollywood alternative or less 'popular' cinemas will also be addressed. Consequently, Studying Film aims to cover a broad spectrum of topics within Film Studies from a range of perspectives;

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2

hence the inclusion of other areas of cinema outside Hollywood, in particular British cinema. Although this coverage is neither comprehensive nor exhaustive of the huge range of film movements that exist, it will indicate some of the alternatives to mainstream Hollywood cinema. In doing all this, each chapter provides case studies, summaries, suggestions for further reading and exercises, some of which are questions for discussion but others of which may be suitable for essay work. A list of suggested websites, a glossary and an index are supplied. As a result, this textbook will provide an invaluable resource for the student and teacher alike. Studying Film aims to stimulate appreciation, enjoyment and understanding of a wide range of different types of film together with an awareness of the nature of cinema as a medium, art form, and social and economic institution. It aims to encourage an understanding of the nature of personal responses to film and to deploy the critical languages that have been developed to analyse the ways in which films and spectators construct meaning. It will provide a critical and informed sense of the contexts in which films are and have been produced, disseminated and consumed, within both mainstream and alternative cinema. It aims to instil a thorough knowledge of the critical and technical terms used in film production and practice. Finally, it will develop a critically informed sense of the history and development of film conventions, both mainstream and alternative.

S T R U C T U R E

OF

THE

BOOK

The book is divided into four main sections covering Cinema as Institution, Film as Text, Critical Approaches to Film, and Film Movements and National Cinemas. Part 1 (Cinema as Institution) examines cinema in relation to the social context within which it operates, in particular the interaction between the cinema as an industry and the audience. It considers the determining factors behind film form, paying particular attention to the industrial and economic basis of commercial cinema, particularly its business and profit motives. Its principal focus is Hollywood, but not to the exclusion of other cinemas. Part 2 (Film as Text) provides an introduction to the basic terms of visual communication and perception as well as to the technical terms specific to cinema. In doing so, it begins to analyse how images and sounds produce and communicate meaning. Part 3 (Critical Approaches to Film) examines the major critical approaches towards understanding film and aims to discover the complex relationship between film as text, cinema as institution, and the audience. The chequered history of theories about how individual spectators 'read' films is also considered. Finally, Part 4 (Film Movements and National Cinemas) explores other forms of cinema outside Hollywood that have been vital to the development of film. It looks at the range of different cultural and institutional contexts for cinema and seeks to understand the different, sometimes explicitly oppositional forms of film associated with them. A note on one or two conventions and other choices about usage which we have adopted for this text. English language titles are given first (except where the meaning of the foreign title should be evident), as well as the original titles in most cases; directors and dates are

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given for most films. We have decided to use the word 'film' to refer both to individual films and to the celluloid, the material of the original medium. The term 'movie' is used sparingly, principally in reference to particularly American contexts. The Glossary explains some key terms. The future for Film Studies? Although there is an emerging discipline, 'Screen Studies' the objects of which include TV, video, video games and whatever happens on a monitor screen as well as film itself - Film Studies will surely remain relevant and must surely inform the new Screen Studies. To be sure, rapid changes in production and projection technologies and viewing contexts are now evident, and these are addressed at a number of points in this volume.

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P

AR T 1

Cinema as Institution

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Hollywood Cinema The studio system 7 Decline of the studio system 15 Hollywood from 1948 to the present 16 Independent American film 23 Conclusion 25 Summary 25

n this opening chapter we shall focus on the American film industry which goes by the

I

name of Hollywood. The precursors to and origins of Hollywood are examined elsewhere,

in Chapter 7 on Early Cinema and Film Form; here we shall be examining Hollywood from its heyday, the 'mature' Studio System between the years 1930 and 1949, through to what has variously been called post-1948 Hollywood, New Hollywood or contemporary Hollywood. While tracing the development of Hollywood, we shall also look at the growth of the 'independents' and their relationship to the major studios in terms of finance, distribution and exhibition. Histories of Hollywood have changed over time. Early histories were little more than firsthand accounts of the industry, written by individuals who were often part of the very system they claimed to analyse. This raises questions of the objectivity and usefulness of such accounts. From the 1970s onwards, however, a new academic form of Film History emerged from the university campuses which sought to revise the earlier, often uncritical, histories. In turn, these histories were themselves challenged in the late 1970s and 1980s and scrutinized by others who had adopted Marxist-materialist perspectives. Then by the mid-1980s, another mode of Film History, which focused upon institutions, began to emerge. Academic understanding of Hollywood, therefore, has developed as the writing of film history itself has changed. Our intention is simply to focus upon certain key periods; we acknowledge that the boundaries that mark different periods in Hollywood's history (and, indeed, what to call them) are still in dispute, but we shall not enter into that debate here.

T H E

S T U D I O

S Y S T E M

The origins and early history of the motion picture industry in Hollywood will be discussed in other chapters; our emphasis here will be on the years between 1930 and 1949, which have been described as the 'Golden Age' or the 'Classical Era' of Hollywood film. To understand

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why this is so, we need to examine the nature of Hollywood film production during this period, which Thomas Schatz (1998) has referred to as 'the genius of the system'. It is during this period that we see Hollywood trying to remove any element of surprise or unpredictability from the film-making process at every level from a film's conception to its exhibition. It must be pointed out here, however, that many of the techniques that were so effective during the heyday of the Studio System were being developed from 1909 onwards and were already firmly in place by 1930.

Oligopoly By 1930 eight studios dominated the Hollywood film industry in the form of an oligopoly: a situation where the market is completely dominated by a small number of companies, resulting in limited competition. These companies were divided into the 'Majors' or 'Big Five', which were Warner Brothers, Loew's-MGM, Fox, Paramount and Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) (see Figure 1.1), and the 'Minors' or 'Little Three': Columbia, Universal and United Artists (UA). The major studios were vertically integrated, which means they exercised control over production, distribution and exhibition, whereas the minors generally concentrated on production. Hollywood's position as the film capital of the world was made possible partly by the advent of the First World War in 1914. The war temporarily destroyed European competition, particularly in France and Italy. For the next four years Hollywood dominated the film world, establishing an impressive global distribution network. It has been estimated that in 1914 Hollywood produced 50 per cent of the world's films; by 1918 it produced nearly all of them. By 1925 foreign film rentals amounted to 50 per cent of total Hollywood revenues.

Image Not Available

Figure 1.1

RKO: disbanded in 1957 (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

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Vertical Integration Vertical integration meant that the major studios dominated film production, distribution and exhibition. They made, released and marketed their films, even owning the cinemas in which they were shown: exhibition was the most profitable sector of the film industry. In the days before television and VCRs, box-office sales were the source of income for recouping budgets spent on making films. The heads of the major studios wanted to ensure that there was a constant outlet for their product, and this led to a series of initiatives designed to dominate the industry. In 1916 Adolph Zukor developed a system of 'block booking' for film distribution. He forced theatre owners to rent Paramount's star vehicles along with groups or 'blocks' of other less desirable and less commercially viable films. Zukor thus ensured a steady outlet for his films regardless of their quality, meaning that money was made on everything Paramount produced. Within a year every major production company had adopted this practice. The studios already controlled production and block booking represented an attempt to control distribution and exhibition as well. This desire to dominate exhibition was extended by the studios' attempts to acquire as many cinemas as possible during the 1920s. By the 1930s the majors were pouring most of their investments into exhibition, and as a result between 1930 and 1949 they owned almost three-quarters of first-run US cinemas. The majors had divided the country into 30 markets and these were again subdivided into zones, in which the cinemas were classified as first-run, second run, and so on. First-run cinemas showed films as soon as they were released. They tended to have large numbers of seats, were situated in key locations in urban areas, and charged higher admission prices. Each film had to be shown for 14 to 42 days before it could move to the next zone, and this meant a maximum profit for the majors from each release. The majors' ownership of theatre chains, in particular first-run cinemas, together with block booking practices, ensured maximum exhibition of their films. As mentioned above, the studios had already established an impressive global distribution system by the 1920s, and a major factor in their success was an international market for their films. The major studios dominated this distribution network as a direct result of their control of exhibition. The minors had some involvement in distribution, most notably United Artists, which was set up in response to Zukor's block booking initiatives by Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith in 1919 for the exclusive distribution of their films. However, they had to co-operate with the majors' system of distribution, and in practice this meant that the majors ensured that their own films received priority over those of the minors. It was these initiatives that increased cost-effectiveness and guaranteed profits and helped to account for the commercial success of the Hollywood Studio System after 1930.

A s s e m b l y Line P r o d u c t i o n During the 'Golden Age' of Hollywood, the studios produced one film each per week per year. At its height, the studio system released 350 films in a single year. The studios were able to achieve such remarkable production figures through rationalization of working practices.

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Adopting a 'scientific management' approach to film production, the studios began to model themselves on factories, employing assembly-line techniques, hierarchical structures, and a strict division of labour; the 1920s also witnessed hundreds of Model T Ford cars as well as an array of other consumer items rolling off assembly lines. In fact Thomas Ince had initiated such practices in the film industry as early as 1908 in the first Hollywood studio, Inceville. Each studio had its own back lot, wardrobe department, props and contract actors. At first, studio heads exercised almost total control over film production, holding responsibility for approving the original film concept and its budget, allocating the director and team of writers, approving the completed screenplay, supervising casting and hiring of other personnel, checking the film's progress, and overseeing the editing. In 1931,

however, Columbia announced the introduction of a producer-unit system

whereby a head of production was responsible for running the studio; directly beneath him/her were several associate producers responsible for supervising a number of films and delivering them to the head of production. These methods were designed to save money since each associate producer could now monitor his/her own projects more closely than one central figure could. Often, the producer was the only person to see the film through from conception to completion. In addition to this, particular specialisms could be developed under particular associate producers, which led to more innovation, creativity, and ultimately better quality films. Altogether, these new working practices improved the efficiency and consistency of film production in the Hollywood Studio System. At Warner Brothers, for example, as many as 20 writers would work on a single script. The script was prepared to an extremely detailed standard and the writers were usually present on set. Once the producer had approved the completed screenplay, the stars/actors were cast and the director, art director, composer, camera operator and editors were appointed. During the studio era the director rarely had any say over any of these personnel; directors were salaried employees 'there to make sure the actors hit their marks while the camera was running' and who left production once shooting had been completed (Biskind, 1998, p.19). The film was then passed on to the editing department, which cut it according to a set of general specifications. Indeed, the style of each film owed more to the values of the studio as a whole than to those of any particular individual working on it. As the largest, most profitable and productive of the studios during the 1930s, MGM mainly produced melodramas, musicals and literary/theatrical adaptations notable for their high key lighting, rich production design and middle-class American values (The Wizard of Oz, 1939; Gone with the Wind, 1939). In contrast, Paramount had a definite 'European' feel since many of its directors, craftspersons and technicians had come from Germany. It made sophisticated and visually lavish films such as 'sex-and-violence' spectacles, musical comedies, and light operas (The Sign of the Cross, 1932; The Love Parade, 1930). Warner Brothers had a reputation as the studio of the working class and focused on low-life melodramas and musicals with a Depression setting (The Public Enemy, 1931; Wild Boys of the Road, 1933; Gold Diggers of 1933, 1933). Under Busby Berkeley, the musical flourished at Warner Brothers (the Gold Diggers series) while RKO became the home of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical as well as of literary adaptations (Flying Down to Rio, 1933; The Hunchback

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of Notre Dame, 1938). 20th Century Fox films such as The Grapes of Wrath (1942) were characterized by their 'hard, glossy surfaces' (Cook, 1996, p.292). As for the minors, Universal produced low-budget features designed for the double bill, but did make a niche for itself in the horror-fantasy genre (Dracula, 1931). Columbia specialized in westerns, while UA became more a distributor for independent directors than a production company (City Lights, 1931; The Front Page, 1931).

Style It was during this period that the studios developed a set of film techniques known as the 'continuity system'. Films of the studio system were constructed in a particular way to ensure that everything was made clear to the viewer. Techniques included psychologically rounded characters with clear goals, character-driven action, the removal of 'dead time', a cause-and-effect, chronological linear narrative, a sense of closure, continuity editing and verisimilitude. This enabled the viewer to suspend disbelief while watching a smooth flowing narrative with a clear ending. These techniques became known as 'classical' film form and will be described in Chapters 6-8.

Genre Another form of standardization that facilitated the use of factory production-line techniques during the studio era was the development of genre. Genre simply means a type or category of film (or book or other artwork; the term is not restricted to Film Studies). Genres provided the formulae for making films during the studio era, and, as noted above, each studio specialized in a particular genre or set of genres in an attempt to attract customer brand loyalty through product differentiation. Genres suited the nature of the studio system for two main and connected reasons. First, they offered a financial guarantee. They were formulaic, they contained conventions and they were repetitive (see Chapter 10). Consequently, they could easily be recycled over and over again, promising standardized consistency. Once a formula had been tried and tested, it was hoped that future success could be guaranteed. Why innovate when past experience based on a specific formula had been profitable? This allowed the studios to successfully target, select and predict audiences. Generic films could be pre-sold to an audience along with a particular star. Generic differences allowed the easy identification of audiences for which specific films could be made, which in turn facilitated standardized production. The audience would recognize the characteristics of that genre and the promise that its storyline would develop with a measure of predictability, thus providing the desired outcome and hence providing satisfaction and fulfilling desires. Second, genres provided a means for the studio to save money. With the establishment of a particular formula, the sets, props, equipment, techniques, storylines and stars could be re-used time after time and frequently were. For example, RKO producer Val Lewton (known as the 'Sultan of Shudders') outlined his recipe for horror: 'Our formula is very simple. A love story, three scenes of suggested terror, one scene of actual violence and it's all over in less than 70 minutes' (quoted in Burman, 1999, p. 9).

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Genre, therefore, was one of the ways in which the studios sought to eliminate the unpredictability that is the nature of a creative medium like film. Principal examples of genre in the studio system were: western (Stagecoach, 1939); horror (Frankenstein, 1931); musical (42nd Street, 1933); gangster (Little Caesar, 1930) and film noir (The Maltese Falcon, 1941).

The Contract

System

As mentioned above, the American film industry was rationalized and subject to scientific management techniques. This included a highly specialized division of labour designed to facilitate mass production of films. Accordingly, during the years 1930 to 1949 the studios employed all personnel, even their stars, on long-term or permanent contracts. The stars, directors and crew were contracted to a particular studio and even those who had established a reputation in the industry were employed on a contract basis. This meant that individuals could be assigned to their roles with ease, speed and minimal expense. Contracts tied stars to a particular studio, which helped to target and attract a big audience for the studio's films. If, however, a star refused to work on a particular film then s/he was not given an alternative and had to sit out for one and a half times the duration of that production while suffering loss of income. As a result many seven-year contracts were extended to twice that length. Often, however, stars were loaned out to other studios; Columbia regularly borrowed stars from its rivals. The contract system may have been a source of bitterness for many Hollywood stars during these years, but it contributed to the success of the studio system.

New Technologies During this period new technologies were developed which had a significant effect on promoting the success of the studio system. Of paramount importance were the introduction of sound technology from 1926 onwards, of cameras with greater mobility, depth of field photography and colour film. These are dealt with in more detail in Chapter 5 on Film Technology.

Context What must not be ignored in explaining the success of the studio system is the context within which the films were made and consumed. It must be remembered that between the years 1929 and 1949 the United States underwent a series of traumas: the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Great Depression, and the Second World War. In 1929 the Stock Market crashed, plunging millions of Americans into poverty. Banks were closed, farms were ruined, and many lost their jobs in the subsequent depression, the likes of which had never been witnessed in American history. The Depression felt even worse because it came immediately after the prosperity and consumer boom of the 1920s, which many have labelled 'the Jazz Age'. During this time of despair and stress, the movies provided a means of escape from the harsh realities of American life and Hollywood films, with a few exceptions, tended to downplay the worst aspects of the Depression. In part, this was due to the strictures of

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the Hays Office (see p. 57 below).

What is more, under the New Deal, Franklin D.

Roosevelt's series of initiatives designed to get America back on the road towards recovery, the restrictive practices of the film studios were tolerated. Similarly, during the Second World War, while other industries either nationalized or closed down (vacuum cleaners and motor cars, for example), Hollywood was not only left untouched, instead it flourished because the government deemed it an 'essential industry'. Not only did it provide a diversion from the war, but its help was also enlisted in fighting the war. Studios helped to sell war bonds, they made training and information films, and assisted in producing and disseminating propaganda co-ordinated by the Office of War Information's Bureau of Motion Pictures, such as Frank Capra's 'Why We Fight' series.

Casablanca (Michael Curtiz 1942) (Warner Brothers) Casablanca has been described as one of the most typical products of the Hollywood studio system. Warners produced it for $953,000, Michael Curtiz directed it and it starred Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid and Claude Rains. The film was an instant success and became one of the biggest hits in studio history, winning Oscars for Best Picture (1942 and 1943), Director (1943) and Screenplay (1943); its producer, Hal B. Wallis, won the Thalberg Memorial Award. Plot: Casablanca is set in neutral French Morocco, North West Africa in late 1941, where refugees from Europe anxiously await exit visas to escape to Lisbon and from there to America. The action focuses around the Cafe Americain owned by Rick (Bogart). Victor Laszlo (Henreid) arrives in Casablanca with his wife lisa (Bergman), both trying to escape the Nazis. We learn that Rick had previously had an affair with lisa in Paris. The Nazis, as represented by Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt), are desperate to prevent Laszlo from leaving Casablanca and the chief of police, Captain Renault (Claude Rains), is asked to assist (see Figure 1.2).

Image Not Available

Casablanca: the star system at work (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

Figure 1.2

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Production: Warners' mode of production was highly centralized. As Executive in Charge of Production, Hal B. Wallis had first pick of story properties, directors, performers, and any other contract talent. The Head of the Studio, Jack Warner, also agreed to hire any additional talent that Wallis felt was fundamental to the production. Finally, Wallis had total control to edit the film. As producer, therefore, Wallis had a huge amount of control over the film. Furthermore, Warners' directors were adjusted to the assembly-line mode of production; they were expected to work on four to five films per year with little active participation in pre- and postproduction. They were excluded from story and script development as well as from editing. Their role was confined almost exclusively to intensive filming, and when most of a film had been completed they were assigned to another project. They had little creative freedom since they were subject to an inflexible studio organization and strict production schedules. This was the case even for Warners' 'star' directors like Curtiz, who had become the studio's top staff director by 1941 having made films such as Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), The Front Page (1935), Captain Blood (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Genre: Casablanca is a love/romantic story and a thrilling adventure/war story in the classical Hollywood style. It is simultaneously two films, allowing for dual readings and different levels of enjoyment for different audiences. Style: Casablanca exemplified the Warners' style which, more than that of any other studio in the 1940s, tended towards film noir. Warners had already made The Maltese Fa/con (1941), starring Bogart as a hard-boiled detective in an espionage thriller. Curtiz, who was appointed to direct Casablanca, developed a noirish style for the film which continued in his later films Passage to Marseilles (1944) and Mildred Pierce (1945). The no/rish style was based on expert camera movement, low key lighting, rapid pacing and shadows, including many night scenes. Such cinematography fitted in with Warners' strict budget policy and helped to disguise cheap sets, particularly during wartime when materials for set design were lacking and films had to be made in more austere conditions. Casablanca illustrates this well: location work was avoided and most of the shooting occurred in a studio. The action rarely leaves Rick's cafe and most scenes are either interior shots or set at night. The final sequence demonstrates the creativity of the set designers in creating the illusion of a fully operational airport. Filmed on a stage, the view from the hangar depicts a cardboard model plane in the distance. In order to achieve 'realism' and to maintain the perspective, midgets acted the roles of the mechanics. Script: The film was based on an unpublished play, Everybody Comes to Rick's by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison. It was then adapted for the screen by a series of writers before shooting began. Aeneas Mackenzie and Wally Kline began the initial treatment; they were later removed by Wallis and replaced by Casey Robinson, Warners' in-house expert on romantic melodrama. Finally, Warners' 'top script doctors' Julius and Philip Epstein were officially appointed and credited with the screenplay while Robinson received no official recognition for his work. During filming, Wallis appointed Howard Koch to rework the character of Rick, for which he received a credit. And when preview audiences expressed disappointment with the ending, Wallis himself is alleged to have added the last line of dialogue: 'Louis, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.' Stars: Bogart was selected for the role of Rick and on 1 January 1942 he signed a sevenyear deal with Warners for $2,750 per week. Bogart was chosen because he was the Warners tough guy - cynical and self-reliant. Although he became a top star at Warners and won an Oscar nomination for his role, he was still tied to his seven-year contract and went on to make a series of war films. David 0. Selznick loaned Bergman to Warners for $15,000 per week and Paul Henreid was loaned out by RKO against his will.

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Exercise 1.1 Take any film from the 'mature1 studio era (1930-49) and examine how it was produced under studio conditions. You may wish to consider the following elements: producer, script, genre, style, director, stars, set design and sound. How did these elements combine to form a successful film?

D E C L I N E

OF

THE

STUDIO

SYSTEM

In 1949, the studio system began to decline as a result of a number of interrelated factors: •

Divorcement in 1948 effectively ended vertical integration as the US courts required the 'Big Five' studios to divorce production and distribution from exhibition because the practice broke anti-trust laws; this brought to an end the oligopoly of the studio era. In the 1940s the studios had already agreed to end other restrictive practices such as block booking and blind selling.

•

The huge demand for films during the 1940s led to a rise in independent production, and in an attempt to reduce overheads the majors subcontracted production to such companies.

•

Stars began to seek greater independence from the studios. In 1943 Olivia de Havilland took Warner Brothers to court over her contract; this resulted in the development of fixed-term rather than unlimited contracts. Stars and crew now had greater freedom than ever before.

•

Costs of production rose as a result of wage increases brought about by the growth of trade unions in the industry.

•

Import tariffs were imposed on Hollywood films, as foreign countries wanted to prevent the export of dollars while audiences were growing more interested in European art cinema.

•

During the 1950s many Americans moved to the newly established suburbs; this had an adverse effect on audience figures, as cinemas were mainly located in urban rather than suburban areas. Although drive-ins were introduced, this did not help to arrest the declining trends since such enterprises tended to favour independent films.

•

Television competed with cinema after 1948 and attendances fell as TV became the focus for leisure activity.

Together, these seven factors combined to increase the costs of production while decreasing the revenues which films brought in. Audiences fell by half between 1946 and 1956, approximately 4,000 cinemas closed, and there were massive staff cuts. This led to the end of the 'factory' production-line system as the studios had no guaranteed outlet for their films. Facing competition from the independents, the studios discovered that their structure was too expensive to maintain. In 1957 RKO, for example, was disbanded. In place of the studio system a new structure for the film industry gradually emerged.

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F R O M

1948

TO

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THE

Institution

P R E S E N T

Divorcement and the newly established television networks led to increased competition and decreased integration in the film industry. As a result, film production became more and more fragmented as independent film production was boosted and new smaller companies began to supply low-budget films (see the section below on Independent American Film' for more detail). The majors increasingly subcontracted production and were eagerto lease studio space to these companies, which further exacerbated the fragmentation of Hollywood. During the 1950s the major studios also increasingly moved into producing TV programmes. Although structural changes in the mode of film-making from the 1950s onwards may have resulted, it can still be debated whether this actually constituted a decisive break with the traditions of the studio system. The term 'New Hollywood1 may be widely used to refer to post-1950s Hollywood, but there is a great deal of debate over what is actually 'new' compared with the earlier studio system. Labels and periodizations that seek to divide Hollywood into distinct periods are continuously in dispute and an academic consensus has not yet been reached.

Oligopoly Film production at the start of the twenty-first century is still dominated by seven major studios: Warners, Paramount, Disney, MCA/Universal, MGM/UA, 20th Century Fox and Columbia Tristar Together they produce 33 per cent of films in the USA, but receive 90 per cent of revenue. Furthermore, the majors have continued to control domestic and international distribution, and although the theatre chains had been split off in 1948 they still continued to dominate exhibition. Douglas Gomery has called this new arrangement a 'bi-lateral oligopoly', replacing the oligopoly of the period 1930-49.

Vertical

Integration

The anti-trust legislation of 1948 forced the majors to divorce their lucrative exhibition arms, resulting in a major loss of revenue. In 1985, however, this legislation was overturned, reflecting President Ronald Reagan's more tolerant attitude towards big business, once again allowing the major studios to buy profitable theatre chains. Thereafter Coca-Cola (the owners of Columbia) bought the Walter Reade chain; MCA/Universal bought a 49 per cent share in Cineplex Odeon; Columbia/Sony bought Loew's Theaters; and Paramount and TimeWarner Brothers both bought their own cinemas.

The Package

Unit S y s t e m

In place of the studio system and its mass production of films, a new 'package unit system' developed in the 1950s whereby individual productions were wholly or partially financed by a studio. Under the studio system ideas were developed almost entirely within the studio, but now 'packages' were developed outside the major studios, which then became sources

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of labour and materials for film production. In the absence of mass production, major companies had to compete for projects initiated outside their studios. Independent producers assembled a package consisting of a script, director and stars on a one-time-only basis in order to acquire finance. The producer, rather than a mogul or studio executive, was now responsible for a film, overseeing its progress from conception to exhibition (see Chapter 2). Alfred Hitchcock, for example, had a contractual agreement with Universal to use their studio staff and equipment. Film-makers, however, were still reliant upon the majors for finance, production and distribution. Studio executives, with little experience of industry, gambled on bankable producers, directors, and stars with strong track records. This caused a shift in power away from the major studios towards new 'star' producers, directors and actors. Film-making is now increasingly dominated by 'the deal' negotiated between the producer and the studio. Nowadays the star may also receive a percentage of the profits. As control has shifted from the studios to the producers and directors, responsibility for the budgets has moved away as well, with the result that the influence of producers and directors has increased. Furthermore, many directors now enjoy more creative freedom to pursue their personal and artistic vision. The major studios have been willing to tolerate this trend towards expanding budgets. Since the early 1950s Hollywood has been increasingly hit-driven following the success of big-budget, star-studded blockbusters such as The Ten Commandments (1956) (Figure 1.3)

Image Not Available

The Ten Commandments: an early blockbuster (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

Figure 1.3

Cinema

18

as

Institution

and The Sound of Music (1965). The budget for the former ($12m) broke the all-time record for a film at that time. From the 1960s onwards the major studios have followed a 'boom or bust' philosophy and this trend has become particularly marked since the 1970s as it was matched by increasing box-office figures. Thomas Schatz argues that not only has the blockbuster mentality significantly intensified among the major studios, but since the release of Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975) (Figure 1.4), it has also been consolidated. According to Schatz, Jaws underlined the value of saturation booking and advertising and the increased importance of a film's box-office performance in the opening weeks of its release. It set new standards for popular cinema and convinced Hollywood that an expensively produced and highly publicized film will automatically turn into a blockbuster (Schatz 1993, pp. 17-25). Compare this to the tight budgets and schedules of the studio system era. Today the industry's success is based upon very few films. Approximately one film in 10 makes a profit on the first run, and so the majors release only 150 films per year between them in an attempt to minimize their financial risks. Compare this to the 350 films that were produced in one year at the height of the studio system. In planning new productions studios increasingly look for sequels, prequels, series and copies of other successful formulae to try to build upon an already proven formula.

Style In contrast to the 'classical' film form of the studio era, films that came out of post-1948 Hollywood did not always follow mainstream film techniques. While classical conventions

Image Not Available

Figure 1.4

Jaws: consolidated the blockbuster mentality (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

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were and are still in evidence, greater individuality and creativity on the part of the director, together with an increased willingness to incorporate European art cinema, led to the appearance of more 'alternative' films (see Chapter 8 on Mainstream and Alternative Film Form). A new generation of directors was emerging whose styles had been shaped by influences very different from those of the studio system. Many of these new directors had been through film schools and had encountered alternatives to Hollywood. Directors such as Coppola, Scorsese, Lucas and Spielberg were labelled the 'movie brats' because of the way they challenged established Hollywood directors and film styles. However, this initial challenge soon came to be seen as Hollywood's saviour. A number of the 'movie brats' films of the 1960s (The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde, Midnight Cowboy, Easy Rider) embodied alternative and 'art' techniques. These films were relatively low budget but were very popular with teenage audiences because of the issues covered, the styles used and the frequent use of contemporary music. The studio was no longer responsible for the style of a film. Whereas before the studio could be distinguished by a film's 'look', under the new conditions it was very difficult to discern a film made by a particular studio as there was no consistency.

Genre Under the new Hollywood structure, the standardized conventions of genre were largely discarded. Instead of the formulaic genre mode of film production of the studio system, Hollywood has increasingly espoused innovation and hybridity. Despite the blockbuster mentality, the success of two relatively inexpensive and unconventional films, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and M*A*S*H (1969), caused Hollywood to begin changing direction. More innovation was introduced as a new generation of American-based directors including Robert Altman, Arthur Penn, Mike Nichols, Bob Rafelson, Stanley Kubrick and Roman Polanski emerged, influenced by the European art cinema of Bergman, Fellini, Truffaut and Antonioni, to join forces with the movie brats. Without the restrictive walls of genre, such directors were able to experiment with as well as challenge generic conventions. This has also taken on an economic dimension for the major studios since mixing genres could broaden the potential appeal of a film. As we have seen, Casablanca was an early example of this, blending a love story, a romantic thriller and an adventure-war story. More recent examples include Star Wars (1977), a mix of science fiction, western, action and war; Blade Runner (1982), science fiction, action/adventure, detective, film noir and horror; and Pulp Fiction (1994), gangster and comedy. Under New Hollywood, genres have become blurred and often hybrid, particularly since the emergence of postmodernism (for more detail see Chapters 10 and 12).

Free Agents The ending of studio contracts for creative personnel in the early 1950s meant that important stars, directors, writers and other talent could now negotiate their own deals with the production companies. Increasingly, agents negotiated deals with studios on behalf of individuals, thus ending the restrictive contracts of the studio system. The most powerful talent

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agencies today are the Creative Artists Agency, the William Morris Agency, International Creative Management and MCA. The end of the contract system and the decline of the rigidly hierarchical studio mode of production combined to give more creative autonomy to the director. Freed from the restrictive directives, budgets and schedules of the studio moguls and executives, a director could impose a more personal imprint upon a film. S/he now had more input into pre- and postproduction, overseeing story and script development, casting and editing. This new power was validated by the emergence of auteurism (see Chapter 9 on Authorship). Similarly, it can also be argued that actors can now have more input into their roles, interpreting them with more individuality than was possible under the studio system. The power of star actors has also increased massively since the ending of the restrictive contract system. It has even been suggested, notably by John Boorman (Deliverance), that five or six key stars have usurped the studios in the Hollywood hierarchy. This power has translated into bigger fees, and many stars now have creative control over a film, including approving its final cut (see Chapter 11 on Stars). The overall effect has been a shift in power away from the studios and an increase in film budgets.

New Technologies Since the Studio System era, Hollywood has continued to see new technologies developed which played a significant part in the success of the industry. This happened in two ways. First, improvements in camera, sound, colour, viewing and computer/digital technologies have led to the creation of more technologically sophisticated films which have helped attract audiences back into the cinemas (see Chapter 5 on Film Technology). Second, the major studios sought to maximize the potential of the rapid growth of new media technologies, in particular cable, satellite and video technology. Cable and satellite stations were eager to pay large sums to screen Hollywood films and increasingly most films now recoup initial budgets on video sales and rentals. Altogether, the revenue from cable TV, satellite and video has begun to overtake that from theatrical release.

Context As was the case during the days of the studio system, Hollywood films continued to be significantly determined by the context in which they were produced. The onset of the Cold War in 1947, the investigations of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC) into Hollywood in 1947 and 1951, and the hysteria of the McCarthy years combined to produce a climate of fear and a blacklist in Hollywood. The result was a decline in socially conscious films and the rise of the anticommunist and science fiction feature. The ending of the blacklist by the end of the 1950s re-energized Hollywood film production. By the late 1960s antiestablishment and counter-cultural tendencies are clearly evident in American film, no doubt influenced by the assassination of JFK, by the Beatles, the pill, drugs, American involvement in Vietnam, and the high profile assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. Furthermore, the Production Code had been liberalised since the early 1960s, and was

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formally dropped in 1968 (see p. 58). By this point the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s had become more militant and violent, transforming itself into Black Power, and this was matched by the students' and women's struggles. These issues spilt over into the 1970s, exacerbated by continued involvement in Vietnam. Watergate compounded America's troubles by revealing the presidency to be flawed and corrupt. In the 1980s, however, Reagan sought to restore confidence in the United States and its foreign policy, and this decade saw a renewed Hollywood interest in Vietnam and other conflicts. This was the period of 'high concept' film-making (see Wyatt, 1994). By the 1990s the end of the Cold War led Hollywood to seek new enemies both outside and within America.

Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola 1979) The production of /Apocalypse Now demonstrates the dramatic changes in film production following the decline of the studio system. United Artists produced it for more than $30m, Francis Ford Coppola directed it and it starred Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall and Martin Sheen (Figure 1.5). The film was a box office success, taking in over $37m, receiving favourable critical reviews and winning Oscars for Best Cinematography and Sound (1979). Plot: /Apocalypse Now can be read both as a physical journey, up a primitive river in the quest for a man whose discovery promises revelation, and as a metaphorical journey into the darkest recesses of the human mind. During the Vietnam War, Captain Willard (Sheen) is sent along a tributary of the Mekong into a tip of Cambodia to assassinate Colonel Kurtz (Brando), once a promising young officer but now insane and surrounded by a gang of worshippers. Coppola's stated reason for making the film was to assist Americans in 'putting the Vietnam experience behind them'. It has since emerged as a provocative and influential film that closely approximates the horror as well as the emotional and physical upheaval of the American experience in Vietnam. Apocalypse Now demonstrates the combination of astute political comment with spectacular aesthetics.

Image Not Available

Apocalypse Now: Coppola directs Brando (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

Figure 1.5

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Production: Coppola was one of the 'movie brats': a film school educated director (in this case UCLA) influenced by European art cinema who had directed The Rain People (1969) and the first two parts of The Godfather (1972, 1974). In contrast to the tight production schedules of the studio system, preproduction began in mid-1975 and postproduction ended in 1979. The film was originally scheduled to be shot over six weeks and to open in 1977, but various setbacks, such as a typhoon that destroyed the sets, and financial overruns, plagued filming and shooting lasted 16 months instead. Overall, production lasted for four years. Similarly, the initial budget was $12m, far in excess of earlier studio budgets, and this rocketed to $31.5m. Genre: Although it can be classified as a war story, the film's philosophical implications, which examine the horror and madness of war, take it beyond the traditional war genre. Its controversial political comment, for example, widened the boundaries of the war genre, as Casablanca had done. It has also been described as a 'quest' film that moves through several other genres such as thriller, horror, adventure and even comedy. Style: In contrast to the studio influence on products of the 1930s and 1940s, UA was not responsible for the style of Apocalypse Now, The film owes its particular style to the vision of Coppola and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, combining art cinema with popular entertainment. It contains some spectacular set pieces, such as the opening dissolves and superimpositions of Sheen's face with a ceiling fan and a helicopter attack; the 'Ride of the Valkyries' battle sequence; and the napalm destruction of Kurtz's compound during the final credits of the film. In contrast to earlier productions that were almost entirely filmed on studio sets, /Apocalypse Now was filmed on location in the Philippines. Script: /Apocalypse Now was a loose adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness (1899) co-written by Coppola and John Milius (the latter went on to make militaristic films such as Red Dawn (1984)). Michael Herr, who had written Dispatches (1977) using his experiences as an army correspondent in Vietnam, provided additional material. As a result, the film displays a clear ambivalence in regard to its view of the Vietnam War, displaying both pro- and anti-war sentiments. Many scenes and cinematic techniques work to further a pro-military, pro-war interpretation of the conflict, but these are always balanced by anti-war, dove-like sentiments. These opinions are never wholly reconciled and lead to what can be described as a somewhat surreal and confusing ending that did not leave critics completely satisfied. Stars: Harvey Keitel was originally cast as Willard, but two weeks into production Sheen replaced him. In contrast to the studio contracts, Brando was paid $lm in advance to be in the film. He turned up on set late, overweight and allegedly drunk, having read neither the script nor the book on which the film was based, illustrating the new power held by key stars. The film also featured many young actors who would later become Hollywood stars, such as Dennis Hopper, Larry Fishburne and Harrison Ford.

E x e r c i se 1. 2 Look at the production of a particular Hollywood film after the 1960s. What are the differences and similarities between films made under the new system and the studio system? How do differences in the structure of the film industry affect the film itself?

Hollywood

Cinema

I N D E P E N D E N T

A M E R I C A N

23

FILM

Independent American film is not a new phenomenon. It has existed since the early days of Hollywood; indeed, many of the major studios began life as independent production companies. During the height of the studio system independent film companies known as 'poverty row', such as Disney, Republic, Monogram and Tiffany, supplied B-features for double bills. Divorcement in 1948 boosted independent film production and companies like Allied Artists and American International Pictures began to supply low-budget films for the growing teenage market. In this period, the majors were eager to lease studio space to independent production companies and increasingly subcontracted production to them; this resulted in such films as Marty (1955) and The Bachelor Party (1957), which were produced by the Hecht-Lancaster company established in 1947. UA, which was the distribution company for such films, released several notable films including Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Night of the Hunter (1955), The Sweet Smell of Success (1957) and Paths of Glory (1957). In the 1960s, the relaxing of the Production Code (see Chapter 3 on Cinema, Audiences and Society), together with the further decline of the majors, favoured the independents. In 1960, John Cassavetes made Shadows entirely outside the studio system and hence has been described as the 'father' of independent American film, drawing upon a long history of maverick film-making that was pioneered in Hollywood by Orson Welles and Citizen Kane (1941). During the 1970s, companies began to specialize in certain genres: martial arts, action, erotica, blaxploitation and horror. Many of today's independent film-makers cut their teeth on the low-budget films of the 1970s. Fuelled by the expansion in home video and cable, independent films have been ever more prominent since the 1980s, emerging from companies such as Circle Films, Hemdale, Island Pictures, New Line Cinema, Cinecom, Cannon, De Laurentis, New World and Miramax. Lowbudget productions could be financed entirely from presales to video, thus missing out the need for cinema release and going straight to video. Some of these companies attempted to work outside the sphere of the majors and accordingly fared badly. During the mid- to late 1980s, however, a new pedigree of 'neo-indies' emerged. Carolco, Morgan Creek, Castle Rock, Imagine Entertainment and Largo all possessed sufficient finance to produce their own films outside the major studios, but they worked very closely with them for distribution and exhibition. Independent film is very much alive in Hollywood today, enjoying both critical and box-office success.

How do we define I n d e p e n d e n t s ? Can independents be defined economically? A truly independent company, it is argued, can finance, produce and distribute its own films. It operates outside the control of the majors and competes directly with them for a share of the film market. However, even the large independents are not truly independent, as they are reliant on exhibitors, often the majors, for their films to be screened. In reality, independent film-makers choosing to work outside the constraints of the major studios, whose films are mostly low-budget in order to retain creative freedom, are closer to being fully independent as their films are often screened outside the exhibition chains owned by the majors.

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However, independent production companies are often owned by a larger company; for example, much of Castle Rock's initial funding came from Coca-Cola, which used to own Columbia. Castle Rock is now a subsidiary of Warners. Furthermore, independents are reliant on the majors for distribution and exhibition (Castle Rock uses Columbia) and some may even receive studio backing, which surely militates against their total freedom. What is more, independent films are often planned in close co-operation with the majors for exhibition and distribution rights as well as finance. Although Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (Figure 1.6) contains some alternative aesthetic and ideological elements and was produced by his own independent production company, 40 Acres and a Mule, it was made for MCA/Universal. Nor are all independent production companies small or low budget. Companies like Carolco, Morgan Creek, Castle Rock, Imagine and Largo were respectively responsible for these big-budget, star-studded blockbusters in 1991: Terminator 2, Robin Hood, City Slickers, Backdraft and Point Break. Most independent companies agree that the label 'independent' is somewhat misleading (see also Chapter 8). While it is agreed that an independent is defined by its capability to finance its own films, most do not operate outside the established studio system; instead they usually enjoy close ties. Today most independent film companies can be described as simply 'outgrowths' of the majors.

Exercise 1.3 Pick an independent film of your choice and assess how this may have shaped the values and content of the film. Does it have any unusual features or striking storylines that set it apart from mainstream Hollywood films? Consider how far any film can be truly independent.

Image Not Available

Figure 1.6

Do the Right Thing: independent or major studio project? (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

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o n]

We have seen in this chapter how Hollywood has changed over time. The American film industry has developed from a highly structured, centralized, factory-style studio system to a more fragmented package unit system in which individual films are pitched by independent producers to competing studios. The result has been a shift from assembly-line production, with its formulaic use of genres, studio styles and stars, to a system in which directors, stars and others have more creative freedom to work outside the limitations of genre, studio style, budgets and other restrictions. Beneath the surface, however, there are some essential continuities and similarities between these two periods of American film history. Despite a short interlude, Hollywood today, like the old studio system, is still essentially a vertically integrated oligopoly. In addition, the studios both of the past and of today have utilized new technologies to maximize profits and to bring audiences into cinemas. Independent film has always existed in the United States but flourished particularly during and after the 1950s following the decline of the studio system. While it may now be hard to distinguish an independent from a major studio, independent films are still a key part of America's film output.

S U M M A R Y Both the Studio System and post-1948 Hollywood can be described as 'oligopolies', dominating through vertical integration. The studio system was structured according to assembly-line production, leading to a high number of films each year. Post-1948 Hollywood is arranged around a 'package unit system', producing fewer films and more blockbusters. Each studio developed its own style and favoured particular genres, but today this is not so evident. The contract system which tied directors, crew and stars to the studio has now ended, leading to greater creative autonomy. Studios have maximized the potential of new technologies to benefit film production. Hollywood films have always benefited from the context in which they were made. Independent American film has existed since Hollywood's origins, but was boosted by 'divorcement' in 1948, the relaxing of the Production Code in the 1960s and the expansion of home video and cable. Economic independents finance, produce and distribute their own films, which are often but not always small and low-budget, operating outside the control of the majors. However, larger companies often own independents and the majors work very closely with them.

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References

Jim Hillier, The New Hollywood (London: Studio

Peter Biskind, Easy Rider, Raging Bulls: How the Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved

Annette Kuhn and Susannah Radstone (eds), The

Hollywood (London: Bloomsbury, 1998). Mark Burman, The Val of death', The Guardian Review (15 October 1999), pp. 8-9. David A. Cook, A History of Narrative Film (3rd edn, New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co., 1996). Douglas Gomery, The Hollywood Studio System (London: Macmillan, 1986). Thomas Schatz, The New Hollywood', in Jim Collins, Hilary Radner and Ava Preacher Collins

(eds), Film Theory Goes to the Movies (London and New York: Routledge, 1993), pp. 8-36. Thomas Schatz, Trie Genius of the System: Hollywood Film-making in the Studio Era (London: Faber & Faber, 1998).

Vista, 1992). Women's Companion to International Film (London: Virago, 1990). Richard Maltby, Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995). Steve Neale and Murray Smith (eds), Contemporary Hollywood Cinema (London and New York: Routledge, 1998). Thomas Schatz, The New Hollywood', in Jim Collins, Hilary Radner and Ava Preacher Collins (eds), Film Theory Goes to the Movies (London and New York: Routledge, 1993). Thomas Schatz, The Genius of the System:

Hollywood Film-making in the Studio Era (London: Faber & Faber, 1998). Janet Wasko, Hollywood in the Information Age (Cambridge: Polity, 1994).

Justin Wyatt, High Concept: Movies and Marketing in Hollywood (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994).

Further Reading Tino Balio, The American Film Industry (Madison, Wl: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985).

Peter Biskind, Easy Rider, Raging Bulls: How the Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (London: Bloomsbury, 1998). Pam Cook and Mieke Bernink (eds), The Cinema Book (2nd edn, London: BFI, 1999). Douglas Gomery, The Hollywood Studio System (London: Macmillan, 1986).

Further Viewing A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies (BFI, 1995). Hearts of Darkness: A Film-maker's Apocalypse (Bahr & Hickenlooper 1991). The L/mVersal Story (Universal, 1995). Darryl F. Zanuck - 20th Century Filmmaker (20th Century Fox, 1995). Hitchcock, Selznick and the End of Hollywood (Thirteen/WNET, 1998).

Production, Distribution and Exhibition Production 27 Preproduction 31 Production 32 Postproduction 33 Distribution 34 Exhibition 39 The Future of Cinema 43 Summary 44

ow does a film eventually reach the screen? In this chapter we shall examine the

H

process of making and showing a film, from original idea to screening. We trace the

life of a film from its earliest stages of finance, preproduction, production and postproduction while explaining key roles in the film industry. The process by which films are distributed, classified, promoted and marketed to the audience will then be explored. Finally, we shall look at where and how films are exhibited as well as at reviewing and criticism. Although film production, distribution and exhibition are global phenomena, our focus here will be on the contemporary US and British situations. In particular, we shall be looking at the period from the end of the First World War to the present day and at those elements that are not covered in other chapters on Hollywood and Early Cinema and Film Form.

P R O D U C T I O N This section will trace the process by which an idea is transformed into a celluloid reality. The process of production itself is subdivided into four further stages: finance, preproduction, production and postproduction.

Finance Film is a blend of creativity and commercialism. It must always be remembered that most film production is an 'industry', a business designed to make money through entertainment. The profit motive of the industry cannot be stressed enough. America's film industry, for example, is the country's second largest source of export. At the same time film production is very expensive and involves high overhead costs. Finance, therefore, is essential to every

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stage in the life of a commercial film and those who provide the money - investors, financiers, distributors and exhibitors - have great influence over the film itself.

Investors The types of investors for any one film can vary considerably. If a major studio such as Warner Brothers, Columbia TriStar or Dreamworks produces the film, it will already have enough capital to finance production through other previously successful and profitable films. On the whole, American studios finance their own development and production out of their cash flow and loans. Independent producers also usually have a contract with a studio. Extreme Measures (1996) and Mickey Blue Eyes (1999) were both made under a housekeeping deal between Liz Hurley and Hugh Grant's Simian Films and Castle Rock (a subsidiary of Warners). They developed the projects using Warners' finances, giving them first refusal on the film. On acceptance Warners fully financed the production. When seeking finance a film company will usually approach the executive producer of a studio or a production company. For independent film production, however, this capital is not guaranteed and thus it must be secured from a variety of sources such as banks, private investment companies, the government, self-financing wealthy individuals, foreign sales, distribution pre-sales, television rights and equity finance. Sid Sheinberg, ex-head of MCA/ Universal, described the difference between securing finance for a Hollywood studio and for an independent production as 'the difference between flying a 747 and one of those devices that people in the Middle Ages used to put wings on, flap and jump off cliffs' (quoted in Mcnab, 1999, p. 12). It is hard to pinpoint why exactly investors invest in a particular film, but the script, the producer, the director, the stars or any combination of these elements may appeal to them. They may have what is known as bankability, that is, it is felt that they can guarantee an audience, which will provide a good financial return on the original investment.

INVESTMENT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM The Government In many European countries, and particularly in France, film-making is a state-funded activity with plenty of government subsidies for production, distribution and exhibition. Through a combination of taxes, tax incentives and government contributions the French film industry is the most vigorous in Europe. Although government funding for film-making in the UK is small, there has been increasing recognition of the need to finance the industry: direct funding rose from £14.9m in 1988 to £27.7m in 1994. Government money is provided through several sources: •

The Arts Council's National Lottery subsidies and film franchises have provided £67m since 1995 to those films that qualify as 'British' under the terms of the 1985 Films Act and which are intended for UK release, such as Wilde (1997) and Ratcatcher (1999).

•

British Screen Finance Ltd is a film investment company backed by both the state and private sectors. Its contribution rarely exceeds £500,000 and is never more than 30 per cent of a film's budget. It has financed Fever Pitch (1996).

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The British Film Institute co-financed films between 1951 and 1998, awarding grants to 'culturally significant projects', aiming to recover its investment through the films it financed,

•

such as Beautiful People (1998). The European Co-Product/on Fund was set up in 1991 to promote collaboration between British and European Union producers. One of its projects was Louis Malle's Damage (1992).

• •

The National Film and Television School is directly funded by the government. The British Film Commission was between 1991 and 1999 an independent organization funded by the government to market the British film industry to overseas film-makers and to provide support for the overall UK film infrastructure.

•

The Film Council, which was set up in April 2000, is a new strategic body for film funded by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Headed by director Alan Parker (The Commitments, 1991; Evita, 1996), it absorbed the British Film Commission, BFI production, the Arts Council of England's Lottery Film Department and British Screen Finance.

Television Companies Television companies are an important source of funding for films; as well as a financial return on their investment they receive the broadcast rights after the film has been released in cinemas. The arrival of pay TV (satellite, cable and digital) has led to an increased demand for films. Abroad, major players such as HBO (USA) and Canal + (France) have been financing film production for some time. In comparison to their foreign counterparts, however, TV investment in the UK is low. The major investors in the UK are the following: •

Channel 4, through its feature subsidiary Film Four, is the biggest TV investor in Britain and has contributed to over half of all British films made since the 1980s. Approximately 10 per cent of its annual programming budget is spent on new British films and it aims to coproduce 15-20 feature films per year. Since its launch in 1982 it has made more than 300 films, including Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and Brassed Off (1996).

•

BSkyB has the pay TV rights to all British films that are theatrically released. It also agreed an arrangement with British Screen Finance (see above) to finance a few British productions in return for the broadcast rights, for example, for Tube Tales (1999).

•

BBC F/7ms has a relatively small budget, but funds film-makers through its 10x10 initiative. Examples would include The Van (1996) and Billy Elliot (2000).

•

ITV Companies generally do not fund film production, but some noticed Film Four's critical success and began to invest. For example, Granada Television co-financed My Left Foot (1989).

Foreign Investment Often UK film-makers look abroad for foreign investment, most of which is provided by the major American studios. Foreign studios financed all the following 'British' films: Chariots of Fire (1981), A Fish Called Wanda (1988), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Emma (1996), Hamlet (1996) and The English Pat/ent(1996). Many countries offer finance or tax incentives if a significant proportion of the main photography is done there. Private Investment Private investment is another way of financing a film. This is uncommon since the high costs of producing a film are beyond the capacities of most private investors. Until 1993 the Business Expansion Scheme attracted many small-scale private investors by allowing significant tax relief

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on investments of up to £40,000, leading to the production of low- to medium-budget films such as Henry V (1989). This scheme was replaced in 1994 by the Enterprise Investment Scheme - a tax-based investment programme. Using this scheme, Paradise Grove plc offered investors roles in the film as extras if they invested at least £1,000. Films that benefited from the Enterprise Investment Scheme were The Scarlet Tunic (1998) and An Ideal Husband (1999). Production companies can also meet production costs by negotiating special fees with crew members and equipment suppliers and by securing product placement deals. This provides a symbiotic relationship between film-maker and advertiser. While the latter gets valuable coverage of a product, the former does not have to pay for use of that product, although some do charge for placement. Recent examples include Tom Cruise swigging Red Stripe lager in The Firm (1993) and Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith wearing Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses in Men in Black (1997). Bond movies have long benefited from use of product placement (see Figure 2.1): Dom Perignon and Bellinger Champagnes, Stolichnaya and Smirnoff vodkas, Samsonite luggage and the BMW Z8.

The producer It is the job of the producer to secure finance for the film and then to supervise its expenditure. The producer is involved in every stage of a film's development from conception to exhibition and is engaged in the film longer than any other person; this continuity is essential for effective production. The producer deals with the idea, which may originate from a writer, director, producer, book or play, and must clear the screen rights for the material and then secure finance by assembling a package that includes an outline script (detailed storylines, possible stars, locations), proposed budget, a storyboard of several scenes, the director and any potential stars. The producer presents the package in such a way that it stands out from the competition in order to attract investment. This process of selling the package is known as the pitch. A successful package will not only appeal to financiers and investors; it will also reassure them that a return on their investment is possible. If the pitch is successful, a deal is struck between the producer and the investors.

Image Not Available

Figure 2.1

Bond films have typically relied on product placement to recoup production costs (Eon Productions, courtesy Kobal)

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Exercise 2.1 Do you think the British government should fund film-making? What are the main sources of production finance for British film-makers or for film-makers outside the Hollywood system working on low or relatively low budget productions?

P R E P R O D U C T I O N

Preparation Once the funding has been secured, the film can enter the next stage of its life: preproduction. Research and planning for production can begin and development money is used to develop the outline script. The producer then assembles a complete package, overseeing and assisting in the hiring of the director and technical crew, in casting and in choosing locations. It is now the task of the producer to steer the film into production, and his/her role can be summarized as the conduit between the idea, the script and the marketplace. The producer has overall responsibility for production and mediates between the film and its financiers, yet beyond this the role is not precisely defined and can vary considerably. Some producers take a 'hands on' approach during production while others delegate to an associate producer who directly supervises the daily shooting. Sometimes there is a credit for an executive producer, usually the head of a studio or a production company, who will not be too closely involved as s/he will be supervising several films in various stages of production. The producer works closely with the director. A good working relationship between them is essential to the film's smooth progress, for where the producer is responsible for financial decisions the director is only concerned with artistic and technical ones. Since filmmaking is so expensive, a great deal of time and effort is spent meticulously planning and scheduling the shooting of the film in order to ensure that it runs as smoothly as possible. Planning covers all of the activities involved in preparing, editing and filming the script, including casting, finding locations, hiring technicians and other crew, organizing insurance, designers, accommodation and travel equipment. During preproduction the script will have been developed into a detailed screenplay, which is broken down into scenes and then storyboarded. This involves visualizing the script's narrative in a series of drawings that indicate the content of each shot and may also include audio information and camera instructions. A shooting schedule is then prepared, and before filming begins a production script is likely to be required. This not only gives script information but also provides written details on how the script is to be filmed, such as camera instructions, further audio information and guidance to actors. Once production has begun, a more precise budget than that proposed during the pitch will be finalized. Budgeting is divided further into above-the-line and below-the-line costs. Above-the-line costs include the salaries of the director, actors and crew whereas below-the-line costs refer to any other expenditure such as film stock, equipment hire, hotel costs, food, scenery and costumes.

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P R O D U C T I O N Production is the actual process of shooting the film. It is usually the most expensive stage in a film's life as it involves a large number of staff; hence the long credits at the end of a film! If the planning during preproduction has been carefully done, then the production should run smoothly and according to schedule. This is not always the case, however, and length of production varies from film to film. Kevin Costner's Waterworld (1995), for example, ran well over schedule and budget as it involved filming on the open sea subject to favourable weather conditions (see also Apocalypse Now, p. 22).

Key Production Roles The following list is by no means comprehensive and does not cover all of the roles on a film. Some of the most important roles in production, however, are: • •

The producer, see above. The line producer is responsible for the daily running of the production, in particular the day-to-day budget.

•

The scriptwriter develops the original script/screenplay. Some films may employ more than one writer as the script is written and rewritten even as the film is being shot (see the section on Casablanca, p. 14).

•

The director is the individual responsible for translating the script into a film. Arguably s/he is the most important individual on the set. S/he usually takes the artistic decisions regarding camera angles, type of shot, shot length, lighting, how the actors should interpret their roles, and editing. As with the producer, the role of the director varies according to each individual. Some may be described as metteurs en scene, basically skilled technicians, while others are referred to as auteurs - more like artists who attempt to stamp their own personal imprint upon the film (see Chapter 9 on Authorship).

•

The art director or production designer is responsible for set design (m/'se en scene) and graphics.

•

The cinematographer is also known as the director of photography or lighting cameraman and is responsible for the look' of a film, as s/he is in charge of camera technique. S/he translates the director's vision onto the screen, advising the director on camera lenses, angles, lighting and special effects.

•

The costume designer conceptualizes and supervises the characters' outfits and works closely with the art director.

•

The casting director selects and hires the support cast and negotiates fees with agents.

•

The camera operator physically operates the camera under the guidance of the cinematographer.

•

The assistant camera operator will help with camera movement, setting up the camera and operating controls, such as 'pulling focus'.

•

The assistant sound technician will often be involved in operating a boom microphone, which is directional, meaning that it only picks up sound from the area the operator is pointing it towards.

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Image Not Available

Director and camera operator at work on Apocalypse Now (Zoetrope/UA, courtesy Kobal)

•

The locations manager finds suitable locations for filming and negotiates their use.

•

The unit publicist promotes the film during production and collects useful publicity materials.

•

The sound technician is responsible for the complex process of recording sound. When recording 'live' sound during filming, recording levels have to be set low enough so as not to introduce distortion and high enough so that dialogue can be heard. Sound checks are carried out before recording.

•

The gaffer is responsible for the lighting under the direction of the cinematographer.

•

The best boy is the gaffer's assistant.

•

The key grip is in charge of all other stagehands, who are known as grips.

P O S T P R O D U C T I O N The final part of the overall production process is postproduction. Once approved, the rushes (film shot that day) will be sent to the editor, who will begin to put together a rough cut of the film. Once filming is complete, the shots are selected and put together to form the completed film. All recorded material is logged; shot and take numbers are indicated with times, descriptions of each shot and appropriate comments on the quality of each take. The completion of the log sheet is followed by an edit decision list. This identifies the takes that have been selected for the final edited film, gives their order and includes any other information that is needed at the editing stage. Editing is the process of joining together the chosen takes in the appropriate order with the inclusion of any extra audio-visual material.

Film Editing The role of the editor is possibly the most important in imposing a narrative structure on the film. S/he supervises the splicing or cutting together of the many rolls of film shot during production into their final structure and will work closely with the director to ensure that

Figure 2.2

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his/her vision is fulfilled. The editing process includes the selection, shaping, and arrangement of shots, scenes, sequences and special effects. The editor will assemble a rough cut from the daily rushes during production, and this will then be refined in postproduction to achieve the finished edit or fine cut.

Sound

Editing

The dubbing mixer, much like the editor, assembles a single soundtrack from the multiple soundtracks recorded during production such as dialogue, music and sound effects (all sounds that are neither music nor dialogue). During film production sound is recorded separately from the film, and the two must then fit together so that the sounds match the images on screen. The soundtracks must also be mixed together at appropriate volumes. This may involve additional alterations to the tone of dialogue and frequently actors are recalled (sometimes months after production has finished) to re-record their lines. Sound effects are the responsibility of the foley team, who create appropriate noises for the images. The sound is then optically or digitally added to the film stock. The composer will work closely with the director to achieve the 'feel', atmosphere, mood, tension and emotion of the film. Frequently s/he will compose and often conduct an original score for the film in accordance with the director's wishes. Increasingly soundtracks are assembled from existing popular and classical music. The sound designer creates sounds for the film, many of which are specially created as they are not reality/earth-based (e.g. spaceships, extraterrestrial beings, etc.). The Special Effects Department creates a range of illusions to enhance the film that are unobtainable during production. These involve using optical effects such as front and rear projection, models, mechanical or physical effects such as fires, explosions, flying or falling objects, and increasingly computer-generated imagery. Graphic artists work on the titles and credits of the film.

D I S T R I B U T I O N Once the director has approved the final cut, a preview screening is arranged for the distribution company. The distributor aims to exploit the film in order to profit from it or at the very least to recover the initial development and production costs. Effective distribution is fundamental to the film's success and many potentially prosperous films have failed at this point. In order to make a profit, a film must make roughly two and a half times its production costs at the box office. A distributor can acquire the distribution rights to a film by investing in it, by buying the rights after it has been made, or by being part of a larger company responsible for both production and distribution, such as a major Hollywood studio. Often the rights to distribute the video are acquired at the same time, which is a large source of revenue. A distribution company is subdivided into Publicity and Marketing (promotion), Film Sales (booking films into cinemas) and the Print Department (making copies of the film). The major distributors in the USA and the UK are UIP, Buena Vista, 20th Century Fox,

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Warners and Columbia Tristar. Independent distributors include Entertainment, Polygram, Guild, Film Four, Rank, First Independent, Artificial Eye and Electric. Based on an estimation of what a film will make at the box office and through rentals, the print and advertising budget (referred to as the P & A budget) is created for marketing. This determines the amount the distributor is able to spend on promoting the film and getting it into cinemas. Again this is divided into above-the-line costs, such as advertising, and belowthe-line costs such as publicity, merchandise and flying in the stars. The distributor typically receives about 40 per cent of box office revenues, 30 per cent of which is spent on marketing, promotion, prints, certification and administration. Any money left over will then be paid to the producer, who will in turn pay the film's investors, artists, creditors and crew. The tasks of the distributor include: • •

acquiring a film; negotiating both the number and timing of the prints to be released to the exhibitors (distributors send hundreds and sometimes thousands of copies of each film to individual cinemas around the world, at approximately £1,000 per print This can cost more than £3m for a film on wide release);

• •

arranging the distribution of these prints to the exhibitors; supplying the publicity material, advertising and trailers to the exhibitors in order to promote the film;

•

arranging promotional partnerships to tie in with the film (known as tie-ins);

•

dubbing and subtitling foreign language films;

•

arranging and paying for a certificate;

•

acquiring the rights to distribute the film on video.

Certification/Classification Before a film can be screened to a paying audience in Britain it is a legal requirement that the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) classifies it. In the United States there is a similar rating system which, although not a legal requirement, makes it unlikely that a film will be screened without a certificate (for more on this process see the section on Regulation and Censorship below). Certification is important when targeting an audience since it will determine the age of the audience at which the marketing will need to be pitched. A distributor may want to maximize the potential audience and aim to achieve a particular classification, as lower categories are on the whole believed to be more commercially advantageous. Monty Python and the Holy Grail, for example, generated some amusing (and probably not untypical) correspondence about how much swearing to lose' (see Figure 2.3). The producers of the Bond films targeted the young teenage audience throughout the 1990s. In another instance, the distributors of The Mummy (1999) (Universal) wanted a '12' certificate for the film in the UK, but a hanging scene was deemed too graphic for such an audience. Universal were given a choice either to cut the offending scene or accept a higher classification. Since Universal wanted to maximize the potential audience, it cut 14 seconds from the scene and got its '12' classification. Similarly, Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) was

36

Figure 2.3

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Monty Python, swearing and certification

voluntarily re-edited at the request of the UK distributor in order to obtain a '15' certificate instead of the less profitable '18'. This was also because, in the words of the BBFC, 'the British audience preferred its entertainment with the blood-letting toned down' (BBFC, 1999 Report, p. 9). Voluntary cuts in trailers are often made to achieve a wider category in order to appeal to a broader audience. The BBFC has tried to encourage these commercial motives where they can be made to operate in the public interest. The standard cost to the distributor for the certification process is £837 (plus VAT) for a 90 minute English language feature film, which means that the per minute cost is about £9.

Marketing Once a film is finished it becomes a product - something that needs to be sold. The aim of marketing is to raise awareness of the product. Audiences must be informed that a film exists, their interest in it must be aroused and they must be persuaded to go and see something they neither necessarily need nor want. This is the job of the distributor. Marketing a film often begins months before a film is released, creating anticipation in audiences that it is coming to a nearby cinema soon. The distributor devises a marketing strategy so that the film finds its audience, and needs to determine the prime target audience at which the film will be aimed. In order to do this the distributor conducts audience research. Preview screenings are set up whereby the

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distributor can receive a range of opinions and reactions to the film, which can be a good indication of the prime target audience. The distributor will also turn to regular weekly research known as tracking undertaken by the National Research Group. The process of marketing can be divided into three areas. • Advertising: the distributor devises an advertising campaign using trailers, posters and radio, newspaper and TV spots, all of which are carefully tested. Interviews are conducted to ascertain a response and TV and radio slots are scheduled in order to reach the target audience. The campaign must be consistent so that the audience receives a single message about the film. Usually this message is based around a film's unique selling point (USP) - that single thing that differentiates it from other films - which could be the director, the stars, the plot or the special effects. Trailers are particularly important as they allow audiences to sample the film first hand. An effective trailer will generate interest in a film while a poor one may dissuade viewers completely. •

Publicity is free advertising that either cannot be bought or is too expensive to buy, such as the front pages of newspapers, magazine covers (see Figure 2.4), newspaper editorials, television and radio coverage. This involves press kits for journalists, photographs, star interviews, press screenings, gala premieres and free public screenings. New films can gain valuable publicity at film festivals held around the world, such as Cannes and the Sundance Festival.

•

Promotional merchandising

has become an important feature of marketing films

following the phenomenal success of Star Wars (1977). Video sales and rentals are important, but initial budgets are now also recouped by sales of promotional merchandising, tie-ins and Original Sound Tracks. This has been accelerated by the trend towards conglomeration in the film industry, as a film is now often perceived as only one part of a product line of toys, clothes, food and drink, video and computer games, novels, comics and other spin-offs. Sales of these items also help to promote the film, while the film encourages sales of merchandise. The most effective marketing method is word of mouth as it not only costs nothing, but also reaches its prime target audience successfully. Personal recommendations from friends, relatives or acquaintances, particularly those with shared tastes, are the most powerful devices for getting people into cinemas. Increasingly this is being replaced by word of mouse whereby films are marketed via the Internet. Today most major releases have a website. Together word of mouth and of mouse combined to create the unprecedented hype surrounding the release of The Phantom Menace (1999). Officially tolerated and unofficial fan-based websites created an expansive source of information about the film prior to its release, even including a scene-by-scene breakdown of the film. The Blair Witch Project (1999) was almost exclusively marketed on the web in the United States prior to its release there. Similarly, The Omega Code (1999) benefited from strategic promotion on the Internet without a single frame being shown to the mainstream press. The timing of release is vitally important in determining a film's box office success. Many factors are taken into consideration: genre, subject matter, and also other films due for release either by the distribution company or its competitors. The peak release dates are

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Image Not Available

Figure 2.4

Free publicity is essential to film promotion (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

summer and winter holidays as these provide maximum leisure time for families. The Blair Witch Project was released in the UK to coincide with Halloween. The release may also be timed to coincide with the Oscars or other film festivals as these can have an important impact on box-office performance. The English Patient was released in the USA in March 1996 to coincide with the Oscar nomination period of February onwards. It was then later

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released in the UK deliberately to feed upon its Oscar successes in the USA. In contrast, 20th Century Fox deliberately delayed the release of the controversial Fight Club (1999) in order to avoid the Senate hearings on how to curb violence in films and thus to evade any adverse publicity that the film may have received. Ultimately, however, despite the best efforts of those promoting and marketing the film, it is the public who decides if a film will be a success or not.

Exercise 2.2 Compare and contrast the routes through distribution and exhibition of a typical mainstream Hollywood film and a smaller British film. Does the latter have the same options and opportunities as the former?

E X H I B I T I O N The next stage in a film's life is where the real money is made. Exhibition is the key stage since it is the first outlet for the film product and is where the distributor earns revenue from the public. Exhibition is essential to a film's success, as it is the shop window in which films are sold to their audiences. A film must also, therefore, be 'sold' to the exhibitor, who works very closely with the distributor to promote the film to an audience. Once the exhibitor has viewed the film, a release pattern and financial deal will be arranged to rent the film from the distributor. It is the task of the film booker to find films that will attract an audience and in turn create large box-office returns, and usually the exhibitor and the distributor will work together closely to ensure this. Mainstream films are usually booked between three and six months prior to release, but sometimes they can be booked up to a year in advance. The exhibitor will then advertise the film locally in order to attract as large an audience as possible. This will be done through listings in local magazines and newspapers, posters, competitions, trailers and other promotional material. Once the audience member has paid for his/her ticket, the cinema typically subtracts about 60 per cent to cover its running costs (the 'house nut') and its profit margin. The rest (about 40 per cent) is paid back to the distributor. In order to ensure a profit, the exhibitor also sells concessions (ice creams, hot dogs, sweets, drinks, etc.); this is a particularly important source of revenue if the film is a failure.

A Brief History of British and A m e r i c a n E x h i b i t i o n We shall look at the history of exhibition until the end of the First World War in Chapter 7 on Early Cinema and Film Form. Here we shall look briefly at the history of exhibition in Britain and the United States after 1918. Following the war, the Hollywood studios dominated US exhibition through a system of vertical integration and continued to do so until divorcement in 1948 (see the section on the Hollywood Studio System in Chapter 1). In Britain, the Cinematograph Act of 1927 attempted to prop up the flagging film-making industry in the

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UK by requiring that a quota of British releases be shown. Deals were then made between the large US distributors (who received about 25 per cent of the total gross from the UK), British film-makers, and the emerging cinema circuits such as Provincial Cinematograph Theatres - England's first national circuit (established 1919). Three other large circuits soon appeared: Gaumont (1926), Associated British Cinemas (1928) and Odeon (1930s), resulting in the construction of many elaborate cinemas. However, the Second World War stopped cinema building in the UK and, by the time restrictions had been removed in 1954, cinema attendance was in decline as a result of changes in leisure activity, the move to the suburbs and greater disposable incomes (see Chapter 3 on Cinema, Audiences and Society). In the United States, audiences declined as a result of a combination of TV and increasing suburbanization. In reaction, the major studios introduced new technologies in an attempt to lure audiences back into the cinemas. There was increased use of colour processes in the 1950s followed by the introduction of widescreen and 3D technologies. From the 1970s onwards, sound quality improved as stereo and Dolby playback were developed (see Chapter 5). However, the decline in audience figures was accelerated by the introduction of home video in the late 1970s. Many cinemas closed down and were converted (in Britain) into bingo halls, pubs, night-clubs or supermarkets or were pulled down and replaced by housing. By 1985 vertical integration had returned in the United States and the ownership of the theatre chains, such as Walter Reade, Cineplex/Odeon and Loew's Theaters, was still concentrated among a small number of companies like Universal, Columbia, Paramount and Warners (see Chapter 1). In the UK the major cinema operators became Cinven (ABC and Odeon Cinemas), UGC (Virgin), National Amusements (Showcase Cinemas), UCI (owned by CBS/Viacom and Seagram), Warner Village and Cine UK (see Table 2.1).

The Multiplex,

Multi-screen and Megaplex

By the mid-1980s British cinema appeared to be in terminal decline as video rentals, combined with dingy cinemas, poor audio-visual quality and high ticket prices, kept potential

Table 2.1

Major UK exhibitors Exhibitor

Odeon Cinemas (UK) UCI (US) UGC (France) Warner Village (US/Australia) National Amusements (US) ABC Cinemas (UK) Cine-UK Independents Total Source: Dodona Research (2000)

Screens

Screens

1997

1998

Screens 1999

410 253 208 152 197 206 66 857 2349

452 294 266 192 197 208 116 856 2581

460 317 303 266 211 180 146 875 2758

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41

cinemagoers at home. The average Briton visited the cinema approximately once a year. As audiences dwindled, profits were affected, and the major US distributors recognized the need to revitalize the European exhibition sector. In the 1960s the major studios, such as Universal, Warners and Paramount, had begun to invest in refurbishing cinemas, improving audio-visual facilities and increasing the numbers of screens per cinema. This led to the launch of the multiplex - two or more screens housed in a single building - by AMC Entertainment in America in 1963, soon to be followed by Cineplex's development of the multiscreen in 1979. The watershed for the film industry in Britain was 1985, when the first multiplex cinema opened in Milton Keynes. Since then cinema-going has changed irrevocably. New 'fast-food-style' multiplexes housing up to 20 screens sprang up across the country. Older large single-auditorium cinemas were divided into smaller screens, giving rise to the multi-screen cinema housing between three and eight screens. And soon there emerged the megap/ex, which housed more than 16 screens, with retail outlets, restaurants and other leisure activities. Since 1985 multiplex expansion has been unrelenting as the major cinema operators have channelled their energies into this sector. Multiplexes with more than seven screens account for more than half of Britain's cinema screens. Almost 1,400 new cinema screens have opened at 140 multiplex sites in the UK and approximately 50 per cent of these opened in the years 1997-2000 alone. In 1998 almost 300 screens were opened (more than in any 12month period for 15 years) and nearly 700 new screens were opened in 1999 and 2000. This trend is increasing as the major operators have yet more multiplexes planned. At present, multiplexes dominate the UK exhibition sector - about half of the UK's population is no more than 20 minutes' drive away from a multiplex and about 60 per cent of all cinemagoers now attend multiplexes on suburban town fringes. In turn, this increased competition has gradually forced smaller inner-city and high street local cinema operators out of the market. In 1999, for example, the ABC in Golders Green (originally the Ionic), which was built in 1912, closed down because of the competition from two nearby Warner Village multiplexes. The future suggests that smaller operators will be swallowed by the bigger chains, leaving just several large exhibitors and a decreasing number of independent competitors. Following Virgin's lead, the major cinema chains have been rebranding themselves in order to attract customers away from other operators and to encourage customer brand loyalty. As a result, many now offer premium screens, 'arthouse' screens, cafes, bars, cappuccino shops, merchandising, children's facilities and other spending attractions in order to set them apart from the competition. Concessions now provide revenues of £125m per year, representing a 25 per cent increase over 5 years. Advertising revenues are also increasing and account for 20 per cent of box office takings. Meanwhile, average ticket prices have increased from £3 in 1994 to £3.75 in 1999. Despite the huge growth in cinema admissions and screens (see Table 2.2) the actual number of films widely available in the UK has not increased significantly. Rather than expanding the range of films, cinemas have tended to focus on exploiting a limited number of blockbusters. Films will play on multiple screens with multiple staggered start times, and despite early promises of maintaining an arthouse screen, many operators have passed this over in favour of offering another screen for the blockbuster.

©

C i n e m a

42

Table 2.2

as

I n s t i t u t i o n

Cinema screens in the UK, 1950-99 Year

1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

Multiplex

Traditional

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 18 45 142 288 390 518 562 624 689 725 864 1089 1357 1617

4583 4483 3034 1971 1529 1530 1562 1275 1345 1315 1290 1320 1310 1325 1285 1280 1280 1275 1280 1358 1260 1224 1141

Total

4583 4483 3034 1971 1529 1530 1562 1275 1355 1333 1335 1462 1598 1715 1803 1842 1904 1964 2005 2222 2349 2581 2758

Source: Central Statistical Office, Dodona Research (2000)

One of the reasons why Britain's film industry is so weak is of course due to American ownership of the cinema chains. American exhibitors tend to block British products and, as a result, approximately 85 per cent of films screened in the UK are American. The US distributors, rightly or wrongly, believe British films to be unpopular with mainstream audiences and, consequently, low-budget and British films find it difficult to find exhibition opportunities outside independent and 'arthouse' cinemas.

Exercise 2.3 Carry out a survey among your class asking why people went to the last film they saw. What factors did they take into account? Did they feel that they had a real choice of films or were there many films that they did not want to see?

Arthouse cinemas began to appear in the early 1950s and by the early 1960s there were approximately 500 in the USA. They are distinguished by their specialist programming policies and the range of films that are shown. They can be defined as cinemas that feature foreign-language, independent, avant-garde, retrospective or classic films. In the UK they are

P r o d u c t i o n ,

D i s t r i b u t i o n

and

E x h i b i t i o n

43

also often referred to as 'repertory' cinemas. Such cinemas are generally small and rely on a select and discriminating clientele, but have nonetheless helped to increase cinema-going. They are generally owned by individuals, smaller companies (e.g. Oasis, Apollo and Robins), or are subsidised by the government, operating apart from the major chains. Since the 1960s they have greatly decreased in number as the distinction between American and foreign films has become less significant and foreign films have had a very difficult time at the box office. However, in the face of competition from the multiplexes, many owners have refurbished their cinemas to offer a different experience including cafes, restaurants and bookshops. Some of the most notable of these cinemas are the National Film Theatre on London's South Bank, the Phoenix in East Finchley, the Tricycle in Kilburn and the Electric Cinema in Birmingham. Reviewing and criticism are important elements in the life of a film as they may help to determine its success. When a film is marketed, press screenings are arranged in the hope of positive write-ups from the critics. The typical film review will contain a concise summary of the plot, background information, a set of condensed arguments about the film and an appraisal. When reviewing a film, the critic will usually be looking for compositional, 'realistic', intertextual and artistic motivation, as well as social and entertainment value as both narrative and spectacle. Film reviewing also has other functions. It informs readers about the latest news and releases. It advertises and publicizes the film, encouraging readers to see it or to avoid it. And it analyses, describes and evaluates the film. The actual impact of the critic/reviewer, however, is hard to pinpoint. Extracts from positive reviews are often included in the poster campaign of a film, but what effect does reviewing have on the potential audience? Are we persuaded to see a film or dissuaded from seeing it because of what someone else has written about it? Who writes about films and why are their reviews read? These are questions that cannot be easily answered, but they will be considered in the next chapter.

Exercise 2.4 For a new release of your choice, read/collect as many different reviews as you can (including a wide range of newspapers and magazines). Try to account for the differences of approach.

THE

FUTURE

OF

CINEMA

What does the future of cinema-going hold? Experts have already predicted that the number of screens in the UK will reach saturation point somewhere between 2005 and 2010. Increasing capacity has overtaken the rise in cinema attendance, and pockets such as Bolton, Swindon and Sheffield are reportedly already unable to sustain any more new cinemas as a result of what has been called 'consumer fatigue'. Multiplexes are also expensive and many have been struggling to make profits. In addition, new planning laws in the

Cinema

44

a s

I n s t i t u t i o n

UK (which encourage investment in town centres and reduction of car travel) have forced many operators to reconsider plans for stand-alone multiplexes on town fringes or in suburbs. The major cinema operators, such as Cinven (ABC and Odeon), Viacom and Seagram (UCI), Hoyts and UGC (Virgin), are delaying and withdrawing from planned projects in the UK and some are getting out of the market altogether. The suggested forecast is that smaller operators will be swallowed by the bigger chains or will simply drop out of the UK market. Cinema-going has been revolutionized over the years not only by new cinemas but also by changes in technology, particularly with the advent of VCRs, the Internet and DVDs. The merger of AOL and Time-Warner suggests that the Internet may become the primary site for film exhibition in the near future, shifting viewing to the home. Exhibitors will undoubtedly react, as they have always done, with the introduction of improved audio-visual technology, which we shall look at in Chapter 5 on Film Technology. Toy Story 2 (2000), for example, was screened in the UK using digital projection, which may make the need for what have been perceived to be unwieldy and costly reels of film redundant. Soon this may become the norm. The introduction of IMAX and OMNIMAX technologies may also affect the way we watch films in the future. But will these technologies have a significant impact or will the allure of viewing films over the Internet within the comfort of the home prove too strong?

S U M M A R Y There are three main stages in film-making: production, distribution and

exhibition. Production involves the following: finance: a producer seeks to find investors and financial backing for a film package; preproduction: includes research, planning, budgeting, hiring director and crew, casting, finding locations, scripting and storyboarding; production: shooting the film; postproduction:

editing, sound design, sound editing and dubbing,

special effects and graphics. Distribution: the distribution, marketing, advertising, promoting and classification of the film. Exhibition: exposing the film to the audience, whether it is in a one-screen, multiplex, multi-screen, megaplex or arthouse cinema; also includes reviewing and criticism.

P r o d u c t i o n ,

D i s t r i b u t i o n

REFERENCES

a n d

E x h i b i t i o n

45

Jill Nelmes (ed.), An Introduction to Film Studies (2nd edn, New York and London: Routledge,

BBFC Annual Report 1998 (London: BBFC, 1999).

1999). Picture Pa/aces: New Life for Old Cinemas

Geoffrey Mcnab, 'Hey, you wanna buy a movie?', The Guardian (21 October 1999), p. 12.

(London: English Heritage, 1999). Janet Wasko, Hollywood in the Information Age (Cambridge: Polity, 1994).

FURTHER

READING

Angela Bell, Mark Joyce and Danny Rivers, The British film industry', in Advanced Level Media (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1999), pp. 130-47. Gill Branston and Roy Stafford, 'Case study: making films outside the mainstream', in The Media Student's Book (2nd edn, New York and London: Routledge, 1999), pp. 369-76. Eddie Dyja (ed.), BFI Film and Television Handbook 2000 (London: BFI, 1999). The Film Industry Pack (London: Film Education, 1999). Douglas Gomery, Shared Pleasures: A History of Movie Presentation in the United States (London: BFI, 1992).

Nicholas Garnham, Emancipation, The Media and Modernity: Arguments about the Media and Social Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). John Hill and Pamela Church Gibson (eds), The Oxford Guide to Film Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).

FURTHER

VIEWING

The British Film Industry (Film Education, BBC2, 1999). The Distributor's Tale (Film Education, BBC2, 1999). The Film Industry in Britain (Film Education,

BBC2, 1999). The Making of a Blockbuster: The Bond Phenomenon and Preproduction (Film Education, Channel 4, 1999). The Making of a Blockbuster: The Bond Phenomenon and Production (Film Education, Channel 4, 1999). The Making of a Blockbuster: The Bond

Phenomenon and Postproduction (Film Education, Channel 4, 1999). Marketing Movies (Film Education, BBC2, 1999).

Cinema, Audiences and Society Film Consumption 46 Regulation and Censorship 53 Conclusion 59 Summary 60

he relationship between films and their viewers is central to Film Studies. '[l]t is through

T

the existence of an audience that film acquires social and cultural importance' (Jostein

Gripsrud, quoted in Hill and Church Gibson (1999), p. 203). It is precisely because of this powerful relationship that the film industry has been subject to censorship and regulation from its earliest days. Similarly, there has been an interest in the impact that a film has upon its audience from the turn of the twentieth century onwards, as well as in who constitutes that audience. The study of these matters falls into two main areas: audience research and spectatorship. In this chapter, we shall be considering the 'audience' rather than 'spectatorship' (the academic study of how individual viewers/subjects relate to and decode film texts), which is examined elsewhere in this book. This chapter is divided into two parts. In the first section, 'Film Consumption', we will examine contemporary film demand and consumption in the UK, encouraging the reader to reflect on her/his own viewing habits. In the process, both the commercial and cultural significance of film consumption will be considered. Film consumption includes not only cinemagoing, but also video, television and other situations of film viewing. In the second section we will consider how regulation and censorship have affected both producers and audiences and impacted upon the relationship between them, particularly in imposing limitations. As we shall see, the history of both topics - audiences and censorship/regulation - follows a similar pattern, as both have fluctuated and changed according to political, social, economic and cultural circumstances.

FILM

CONSUMPTION

We know that people watch films and that films have audiences. An audience is essential to the continuing production of films, as that is where profits are made and initial investments are recouped. But what is an audience and what do we actually know about audiences? First, a warning: the concept of the audience is slippery, shapeless, evasive, and rather hard to define, but we can distinguish the audience from the spectator. Where the spectator is an individual, the audience is a collection of individuals transformed by a shared experience;

C i n e m a ,

A u d i e n c e s

and

Society

47

where the spectator is constituted by psychological and textual relations, the audience is organized around categories of ethnicity, class, gender, age, education, and so on. Furthermore, the audience is a construct and can never be understood in a 'pure', unadulterated form. The ideological perspective of those who are looking for the audience - film producers, marketers and distributors, pressure groups or governmental agencies - shapes their particular conception of the audience. When seeking to understand the audience we have to consider who watches films and how, when and where they are watched. How many people watched the film and what did they do afterwards? What role do films play in our lives? How do we actually watch them and with whom? How do we use and talk about our film experiences? We cannot treat the audience as a single, monolithic, undifferentiated mass. Rather, we must understand that the audience is heterogeneous and can contain many people from various groups, that different films are enjoyed and hated by different people at different times, and further that films are watched in widely differing circumstances: in cinemas, at home on the TV, video or DVD, over the Internet, on aeroplanes, with friends, or alone, and so on. Our enjoyment of a film will also vary according to mood, different social occasions, whether we are alone or with others, and whoever is watching with us. Perhaps the best way to understand what we mean by the audience is to be aware of your own responses and behaviour when engaged in the social practice and cultural phenomenon of cinema.

Constructing Audiences Although the concept of the audience is difficult to pin down accurately, a great deal of what is called quantitative research has been devoted to doing just that. The first audience research was prompted by fears about the social effects of cinema's huge popularity, particularly with youngsters. And there has long been an interest in audience composition, particularly for early audiences. Studio executives pay large sums to audience research groups to measure the success of their films and to provide 'what people want'. The commercial and competitive nature of Hollywood and other film industries has ensured a constant flow of research about numbers of viewers, information about who they are and what they make of what they see (and hear). Furthermore, the film industry has always sought to relate cinema audiences to wider society and its tastes and composition. Audiences have thus been categorized in two ways: •

demographics, which segments social groups according to class, gender, age, family, nation, and ethnicity, education, religion, political allegiance, region, urban/rural background etc.;

•

psychographics, whereby the consumer is categorized in terms of needs and desires (e.g. those who aspire to a richer lifestyle or those who want to make the world a better place).

Film producers, distributors and exhibitors (who are often ultimately part of the same company) have attempted to construct audiences from the very beginnings of the film industry. As we have seen in the section on distribution in Chapter 2, once a film is finished it

48

C i n e m a

as

I n s t i t u t i o n

becomes a product that needs to be sold. An audience is targeted, selected and constructed; today this has become an industry in its own right. Profiling, market research, advertising, tracking and psychological testing are all used to build and construct an audience, and vast sums of money are spent doing this.

Understanding Audiences Academics, governmental agencies and pressure groups, while interested in the audience, are particularly concerned with the effects of film consumption and the uses to which it is put, and a range of theories have been developed which seek to explain these processes. Some of these models are looked at in Chapter 12 on spectatorship; however, below we list those that have sought to understand how audiences read and use films. •

Opinion leaders and two-step flow: early research suggested that audiences were neither passive nor uniform. While audiences did accept media messages, they were also as likely to be influenced by their own situations or others' opinions as by the content of a film text. It was shown that opinion leaders played a key role in affecting individual views (see Lazarsfeldeta/., 1944).

•

Selective influence: this research indicated that the effects of films were neither direct nor uniform. Further, audiences' selection of films was typically based on their social category (e.g. class, age, gender), their individual psychology and social relationships, which were more influential on their opinions than the media. The research indicated that to maximize profit, films should be targeted towards specific groups.

•

Modelling: this research suggested that audiences may gradually emulate behaviour that was clearly rewarded and appealing, which in turn could be reinforced by frequent observation of such behaviour or by discovering that it actually produced results. This approach is evident in the concern over cinematic and 'designer' violence.

•

Media consumption within social environment explores who controls the viewing and how people actually watch and talk about their experiences. This presumes an active viewer watching in specific social circumstances and sharing audio-visual experiences in an equally social context (see Morley, 1986).

•

Historical reception studies: Reception Theory looks at audiences as individuals who actively make sense of media texts. Stuart Hall, head of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in Birmingham, suggested that how we decode information contained in the text will depend on our background and factors like class, ethnicity, gender, age, status, job, region, religion, experience and beliefs. These factors will influence our response regardless of what a producer may have encoded within a film. In analysing encoding and decoding in media texts, Stuart Hall, using a Cultural Studies approach, noted that while a text may have a preferred reading encoded within it, this is not always accepted. Rather, there are three types of audience response: dominant readings in which the audience accepts the preferred reading; negotiated readings in which the audience generally agrees with dominant values, but may disagree with certain aspects; and oppositional readings in which the audience rejects dominant values (see Hall et a/.,

Cinema,

A u d i e n c e s

and

S o c i e t y

49

1980; Morley, 1980). Umberto Eco has gone further in claiming that all media texts, including films, can also be aberrantly decoded. Historical reception studies analyse the varying responses of audiences to certain films at specific historical moments, taking into account social history, audience composition, reviews, commentary, fandom, star images, tie-ins, scandal and any other events/publicity that impact on the reception of a film (see Staiger, 1992). A good example of such an approach is Staiger's own Taboos and totems: cultural meanings of The Silence of the Lambs', in Collins eta/., (1993).

A B r i e f H i s t o r y of UK C i n e m a - g o i n g In 40 years UK cinema attendance has changed dramatically (see Table 3.1). The peak point of cinema attendance was 1946 when there were 1,635 million admissions, representing 31.5m people going once a week. By 1984, however, cinema attendance had sunk to a post-war low of 54m (over 70 per cent of the population had not been to see a film once that year!). What happened over these years to change a nation's leisure habits? Those who went to the cinema in 1946 were mostly working-class, urban and young and lived near to local cinemas. Young children grew up going to the cinema, particularly on Saturday mornings, encouraged by their relatives. By the mid-1950s, however, the growth of the suburbs took people away from local cinemas and their extended families. Furthermore, a growth in leisure time and greater disposable income meant that people had a far greater range of consumer products to distract them. Inner-city cinemas closed down and failed to relocate to the new housing estates. Meanwhile, though the young working classes were still the main consumers of films, they were also absorbed in other activities like music, dressing up and drinking, which grew out of a distinctive youth culture. Although television appeared in the 1950s, it was at first restricted to the middle classes (who had never constituted a significant part of cinema audiences) and did not have a major impact until the early 1960s with the advent of ITV and (later) colour. Thereafter, the home became the focus of leisure activity. By 1984, then, most people in the UK preferred to watch films at home. As we have seen in our section on exhibition, dingy cinemas, poor audio-visual quality and high ticket prices kept potential cinemagoers at home and the average Briton visited the cinema only once a year. By this time, cinema had also ceased to be a primarily working-class activity.

V i d e o , Pay TV, DVD The advent of video in the mid-1970s revolutionized access to films and may also have kept cinemagoers at home. Rather than depending on the local cinema or BBC and ITV, people could choose a wide range of films to be viewed in the comfort of their own homes. Video viewing is suited to family life as it is cheaper than multiple cinema tickets, parking/public transport and the obligatory refreshments, and can cater for the whole family's tastes and preferences. Video can also compensate for the lack of choice at the cinema and provide for niche or culturally specific tastes. Furthermore, video gives greater power to the consumer to choose when, where and how to watch - a trend that can only increase with the

Cinema

50

Table 3.1

as

I n s t i t u t i o n

UK cinema admissions 1933-98

Year

1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965

Admissions (millions) 903.00 950.00 912.33 917.00 946.00 987.00 990.00 1,027.00 1,309.00 1,494.00 1,541.00 1,575.00 1,585.00 1,635.00 1,462.00 1,514.00 1,430.00 1,395.80 1,365.00 1,312.10 1,284.50 1,275.80 1,181.80 1,100.80 915.20 754.70 581.00 500.80 449.10 395.00 357.20 342.80 326.60

Year 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998

Admissions (millions} 288.80 264.80 237.30 214.90 193.00 176.00 156.60 134.20 138.50 116.30 103.90 103.50 126.10 111.90 101.00 86.00 64.00 65.70 54.00 72.00 75.50 78.50 84.00 94.50 97.37 100.29 103.64 114.36 123.53 114.56 123.80 139.30 135.50

Source: Screen Digest/Screen Finance/BFI

expansion of pay TV services, particularly BSkyB and digital TV, which now allow the viewer to select from a range of films on offer, and DVD, which is set to replace video. It will be interesting to see how these developments will affect cinema attendance over the coming years, especially as the relationship between video and a decline in cinema attendance is not as straightforward as it appears. Cinema attendance began to rise in 1985 - reaching 75m compared to 54m the previous year - just when video ownership was reaching its peak. Video ownership, therefore, may actually indicate a resurgence of interest in the cinema, not least because those who own VCRs are also most likely to attend the cinema and may only use their machines for timer recording.

C i n e m a ,

A u d i e n c e s

a n d

S o c i e t y

51

Multiplexes and Multi-screens When the first UK multiplex opened in Milton Keynes in 1985, it was during what was labelled 'British Film Year'. Since then cinema-going has changed irrevocably and cinema attendance has risen, seemingly as a direct result of the increase in the number of cinema screens. In 1998 the attendance figure reached 135.5m, totalling £507m in box-office takings. The Full Monty lifted British cinema attendance to a record 139.5m in 1997, but this fell in the following 12 months with the top British film, Sliding Doors, only managing to take £12.3m in comparison to The Full Monty's £40.8m. The American-produced Notting Hill boosted audiences in June and July 1999 to levels not seen since the 1970s. Audiences were forecast at 140m for 1999, which only just signals a return to the attendance figures of the 1970s. Although Britain has nearly as many screens as in 1960, attendance has dropped by 75 per cent. The average Briton now goes to the cinema about 2.3 times per year in comparison to 9.6 visits per year in 1960. In contrast, the average American attends the cinema more than five times a year and the United States is described as having the world's most developed cinema market. Cinema-going has witnessed a shift in class allegiances, becoming more of a middle-class thanworking-classactivity(seeTable 3.2). IntheUKthoseaged between 1 Sand 24werethemost regular cinemagoers in 1998, followed closely by 25-34 year olds and then 7-14 year olds, a total of 24.33m people (see Table 3.3). Research has shown that the 15-24 age group has the most time and money to go the cinema and they will be deliberately targeted byfilm-makers, distributors and exhibitors. Interestingly, the largest demographic group - 35+ (representing 30.15m people, well over half the population) - visits the cinema the least, as their time and disposable income may be decreased as a result of other responsibilities. Since the rise of the multiplex theaudiencehasbecomemorefamily-centred since suchcinemasareconveniently located (a short drive from most homes) and are near to shopping and other leisure facilities. In terms of gender, the figures are almost identical: 82 per cent male and 84 per cent female.

Why do we w a t c h ? The type of film available to us is determined by a number of factors: where we live, how much we can afford to spend, what is on TV, whether we have pay TV, a VCR or DVD player, and what

Who goes to the Cinema? UK cinema screens and admissions, 1960-98 Year

Admissions (million)

Admissions (per person)

1960 1970 1980 1990

500.8 193.0 101.0 91.0

9.6 3.5 1.8 1.6

1995 1996 1997 1998

108.0 124.0 139.5 135.5

1.8 2.1 2.4 2.3

Source: Dodona Research

Table 3.2

C i n e m a

52

Table 3.3

a s

I n s t i t u t i o n

Frequency of UK cinema-going 1998 Age group No. of people (m) Once a month or more (%) Less than once a month (%) Once a year or less (%) Total who ever go to the cinema

7-14

; 15-24

25-34

35+

ABC1

C2DE

Male

Female

30.15

26.39

28.09

26.79

27.69

31

53

33

11

27

20

24

22

48

37

44

33

41

34

37

39

13

7

18

30

20

25

21

23

92

97

95

74

99

79

82

84

8.30

9.07

6.96

(%) Source: Screen Finance/X25 Partnership/CAVIAR

Notes: A = upper middle class, successful business, higher management or professional B = middle class, middle management or administration or professional Cl = white collar, lower middle class, junior management or supervisory or professional, small tradespeople or non-manual workers C2 = blue collar, skilled working class, manual D = semi- or unskilled manual workers E = unemployed or casual workers or pensioners or those dependent on social security

is available at the local video rental shop. In rural areas, there are less cinemas than in urban areas. Similarly, in larger cities there is a greater choice of cinemas, including more repertory/arthouse cinemas. Cinema-going tends to be greater in areas where there is a large number of screens offering a wide choice of films than in locations with a limited selection. The quality of the cinema experience, its proximity to other attractions, easy access and parking are all other reasons why people go to the cinema. However, increased ticket prices and the cost of food, popcorn, etc. have begun to undermine the perception that cinema is cheap. Some of the main reasons for going to the cinema are that it provides the best setting for viewing films, access to new films while they are still 'fresh', and a pleasurable, undemanding and cheap chancefor going out. On the other hand, improved home viewing technology, greater access to films through film channels and video hire, and shorter post-cinema release times have lessened the appeal of going to the cinema, making watching at home seem cheaper, easier and more comfortable and relaxing than going to the cinema. Cinema-going competes against other forms of leisure; for some people it does not have the convenience of watching at home, while for others it is not as social or exciting as going out for a drink, to a party or a club or eating out. It has a low priority as it is seen to be continuously available, low key and neither routine nor special enough to make it first option. Cinema-going, therefore, is increasingly combined with other leisure activities as one part of a larger night out. However, there are occasionally 'must-see' films which transform cinema-going into a leisure activity in its own right. The most intensive periods for watching films in the UK are the Christmas and summer holidays, the peak leisure times when both TV and cinema audiences are at their highest. Weekends usually generate the most video rentals.

C i n e m a ,

A u d i e n c e s

and

Society

53

Choosing Films According to the Film Policy Review Group (FPRG, 1998), 'Film is regarded [by the audience] as the most complete story-telling medium; watching an enjoyable film is still one of the most satisfying, absorbing and appealing forms of entertainment'; but how do audiences decide what films to see? A survey of UK cinema-going habits conducted by the FRPG in the 1990s showed that cinemagoers were rather cautious when choosing films, tending to avoid those they might not like. As there is a large choice of films which spectators know they should enjoy, there was only limited interest in taking risks by exploring films beyond the mainstream, and a tendency to stick with 'their kind of film'. The study found that in general terms, younger (18-30) C1C2 audiences prefer more mainstream, big budget, star-studded action films with impressive special effects rather than gritty realism, small-scale and low-budget 'message' films, which are perceived as 'depressing'. Older audiences, on the other hand, like subtlety; men prefer action films while women prefer human interest stories. C2s favour easy-watching escapist films while BCls want to be challenged more. Older and more educated Bs like realistic films about characters and settings they can identify with and period films, classics and films about social issues. Beyond these broad tastes, mood, occasion and company can also have an impact, and we are likely to be influenced by the presence of a favourite star or director, the plot, special effects or music. Our choices are also influenced by how and by whom the film has been recommended. Despite the vast sums of money spent on marketing films, word of mouth is a particularly important factor in choosing a film, though reviewing and criticism clearly also play a part. Specific choices and judgements are made on the basis of a wide variety of evidence, such as genre, title, poster, stars, director and publicity.

Exercise

3.1

Think about your own film-watching behaviour: when do you go to the cinema and why? When do you watch films on TV and when do you rent videos? Also, consider occasions when you have watched films other than on TV or at the cinema.

R E G U L A T I O N

A N D C E N S O R S H I P

Censorship - erasing or blocking parts of or whole publications, correspondence or theatrical performances - has a long history stretching back to ancient times. Every society has had customs, taboos or laws by which speech, play, dress, religious observance and sexual expression were regulated, and laws have evolved concerned with restricting the expression, publication and dissemination of information, particularly in wartime.

54

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Public complaints often accompanied the emergent medium in the 1890s, but it was not until the expansion of permanent cinemas from 1905 onwards that public and governmental interest took hold and censorship was enforced. Initially it was the responsibility of the police and the local authorities, using the existing laws and powers covering places of entertainment, to censor films. But as film developed into a global phenomenon, film-makers had difficulty dealing with the variable standards applied from one country to another and sometimes within their own country too. In response, each country's film industry usually set up its own voluntary censorship organization with which film producers were expected to cooperate. In most European countries censorship remained a local police responsibility for far longer than in the UK or the USA. In countries with totalitarian or autocratic governments, however, there has been central government control of all films, as was the case in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Censorship bodies usually develop guidelines about what is prohibited in films, and these have changed over time according to changing circumstances. In particular, public attitudes have changed, and more explicitly violent and sexual representations are tolerated now than in the past. As the power of religious bodies has declined, religion and morality do not appear to be subjects for censorship.

Exercise 3.2 As a member of an audience, how far do you feel that an external body has the right to censor and regulate what you see? In what situations are censorship and regulation not only necessary, but also desirable?

Censorship in the United Kingdom At present, film and video are regulated (and in some cases censored) by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) - an independent, non-governmental body, funded by charging for the service it provides to the film industry. Although the BBFC gives the certificate for a film, any local authority has statutory power to overrule its decisions. Local authorities generally accept the Board's decisions, except on rare occasions such as when Westminster Council, for example, refused to allow the screening of Crash (Cronenberg, 1996) in its cinemas, or when Camden showed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Hooper, 1974) without approaching the Board. Several local authorities also banned the screening of Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) on grounds of blasphemy, with the result that in 1979/80 one could see the film in Leeds but not in Harrogate. All films normally require a certificate, which must be clearly displayed in advertising, at the cinema entrance and on the screen immediately before the film is shown. Local authorities can, however, allow an uncertificated film to be screened, but face the possibility of legal action, for example under the Obscene Publications Act. Cinemas have to be licensed before they can screen films and are thus unlikely to risk losing an exhibition licence (see Figure 3.1) by screening a film which a local authority is likely to object to.

Cinema,

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55

The BBFC age certificates

Initially, it was the responsibility of local authorities to censor films, but this led to confusion as widely differing standards were applied. Among the first councils to ban a film outright was London County Council, which took objection to a film of the recently contested world heavyweight boxing championship, in which a white man had been beaten by a black opponent (see Richards, 1997, p. 167). In 1912 the British Board of Film Censors was established by the film industry to provide uniform national standards of censorship. The Board has never had a written code of practice although it has published its classification guidelines. The history of regulation and censorship shows, however, that the Board's standards have changed as society has changed. In 1913 there were two certificates: 'U' (universal) and 'A' (more suitable for adults). In 1916, BBFC President T.P. O'Connor compiled a list of 43 rules that covered censorship. At that time, Britain was involved in the First World War and Russia was close to a revolution. These concerns were reflected in his guidelines that films should not depict 'realistic horrors of warfare' or 'relations of capital and labour'. The rules also exhibited a fear of immorality, particularly sex, and outlawed items such as 'nudity' and 'indelicate sexual situations'. The rules governing cinema were strict at this time, not least because the audience was perceived by the very paternalistic and morally old-fashioned Board as an immature, working-class mass, susceptible to corrupting influences. A notable example of censorship after the war was the banning of the Soviet film, Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein, 1925), in 1926 because of its violent and revolutionary aspects. These were seen as particularly relevant in Britain at that time as the General Strike held the possibility of striking workers overthrowing the government. Between the two world wars, the BBFC was mainly concerned with horror and gangster films and those that dealt with sexuality. In 1932 the category 'H' was introduced to indicate potential unsuitability for children. By 1951, the emergence of the 'teenager' as an economic force and a major part of cinema audiences, coupled with fears of teenage gangs and crimes, prompted the introduction of a new category: 'X' excluded children under 16. Rebel without a Cause (1955) was heavily cut so that it could be screened, and The Wild One (1954) was banned altogether, as it was seen as a threat to traditional family values. Over the next two decades, partly in response to growing numbers of serious 'adult' films with sexual themes from mainland Europe, the Board were obliged to accept directorial intention and artistic merit as valid criteria; the standards changed once again partly also to incorporate teenagers' specific concerns: 'X' was raised from 16 to 18, 'A' allowed the admission of 5 year olds whether accompanied or not, 'AA' allowed in those aged 14-17 if accompanied by an adult, and 'U' was wholly suitable for children of all ages.

Figure 3.1

56

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In 1982 these categories were again changed when the BBFC modified its classifications to correspond with the American system: 'A' became 'PG', WY became '15', 'X' became '18', and a new category of 'R18' for material of a sexually explicit nature was introduced. The category of '12' was added in 1989 to bridge the gap between 'PG' and '15' and the category of 'Uc' (particularly suitable for children) exists solely for video. Reflecting concerns over the rise of so-called Video nasties', in 1984 the Video Recordings Act was passed and a year later the BBFC was empowered to classify all videos for sale and rental. The Board changed its named to the British Board of Film Classification to reflect its new role. In 1994 the Criminal Justice and Public Order Amendment to the Video Recordings Act of 1994 required the BBFC to consider if a video can cause 'harm to potential viewers' or 'harm to society through the viewers' behaviour' in its treatment of 'criminal behaviour', 'illegal drugs', 'violent behaviour and incidents', 'horrific behaviour and incidents' and 'human sexual activity'. The standards applied to videos have always been much stricter, as access to them is much easier than to a cinema, which is required to operate an age bar and can lose its licence for not doing so. The Board's video classification also has more direct legal force. The BBFC only censors/cuts about 7 per cent of the films submitted for classification. The current BBFC President, Andreas Whittam Smith, recognizes that cutting is not easy to do without the audience realizing that the film has been censored: 1 originally thought "Oh well, if there's a problem, we can cut our way out of it." That's not really an option. Anything good is too intricately made to cut' (quoted in Pendreigh, 1999, p. 7). In terms of classification the BBFC has three main areas of concern: language, sex and violence. It must also apply legislation to films and videos before they can be classified, and its guidelines have changed as new laws have been passed. These include the Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act 1937, the Protection of Children Act 1978, the Obscene Publications Act 1959 and 1964, the Race Relations Act 1976, Blasphemy, the Hypnotism Act 1954 and the Human Rights Act 1988. Now, the BBFC also has to take into account the right to free expression under the European Convention of Human Rights. Changing Times: the 1990s

As a sign of changing times, the BBFC has passed uncut several films which have featured explicit sex scenes that seem to have crossed over the line of what was previously thought in good taste, particularly Romance (1999) and Idiots (1999); but Happiness (1998), American Pie (1999) and There's Something About Mary (1998) have also tested the boundaries. Furthermore, the Board has classified films that had caused controversy on their original release in the 1970s. Straw Dogs (1971) and The Exorcist (1973) received video classifications for the first time; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and A Clockwork Orange (1971) - the latter withdrawn by Stanley Kubrick himself - were both passed for cinema screening, while The Driller Killer (1979), demon of the 'video nasties' hysteria of the 1980s, was passed and screened after the distributing company itself made cuts. In 1998 the proportion of '18' films dropped to 16 per cent and cuts were required in only 14 films, 3.6 per cent of the total. Both statistics represent the lowest recorded proportions on record. In 2000, following a six-month consultation period involving the public, the BBFC relaxed its guidelines, saying that it would 'only rarely' cut explicit sex scenes, thus reflecting a mood that the public would rather make up its own mind about what was acceptable. Does this indicate that the BBFC is becoming more liberal in its decisions, reflecting contemporary circumstances, or that film-makers are treating adult subject matter in what some may consider to be a more responsible and socially acceptable fashion?

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Exercise 3.3 In Ali G: Da Video, Ali G expressed the opinion that if his video did not receive the '18' certificate then he would be in grave danger of losing his street credibility. How far are we guided by a film's classification? Would you watch or ignore a film because of its classification?

Censorship in Hollywood In the United States, the Constitution and the First Amendment, which guarantees free speech, protect film. However, individual states can censor films if they are 'obscene' and classify them if it is felt they may harm children. Initially, the National Board of Censorship was set up in 1909 to pass films as suitable for exhibition, whether censored or uncut. Unlike the BBFC it did not classify films as suitable for particular audiences. In 1922, however, following growing public concern about film content and some Hollywood scandals, the American film industry set up the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA),1 headed by Will Hays. The MPPDA administered a 'voluntary' code of self-regulation in both pre- and postproduction, which became known as the 'Production Code' or the 'Hays Code'. The Production Code In 1930 a more formal set of rules called the Motion Picture Production Code was introduced in Hollywood but this was not enforced until 1934. During those four years, censorship was lenient and film-makers took full advantage, with the result that sex and violence routinely found their way onto the screen. In 1934, however, the studios were under intense pressure to 'clean up' or face government legislation and they agreed to self-regulation through the Code. The studios were feeling the effects of the Great Depression and radio's growing popularity. In an attempt to appease religious groups engaged in box-office boycotts and to ward off the possibility of costly governmental censorship, the MPPDA instead amended the 1930 Code 'to give it coercive power over member producers'. The amendments were formally adopted on 12th July 1934. Self-regulation was quickly and generally accepted for three reasons: its standards were uniform and national, it saved the studios huge editing and distribution costs and the resulting 'wholesome family pictures' were extremely profitable, and the advent of the enforcement of the Code coincided with Hollywood's rapid return to financial prosperity. Any infraction, however small, was punished by a $25,000 fine. The Code attempted to tie film production to a Judaeo-Christian standard of morality by instituting the following guidelines: the sympathy of the audience should never be drawn to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin; excessive and lustful kissing and embracing and suggestive gestures and postures and explicit nudity were unacceptable; and swearing, such as the use of 'Damn', 'God' and 'Hell', was unacceptable. HUAC and the 1950s The 1950s were a fascinating decade in American film history. In addition to the Production Code, a number of political, economic, cultural and social factors coincided to produce an almost

58

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unprecedented situation of self-regulation and self-censorship. In 1947 and later in 1951, the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC) began to investigate possible communist influence in the motion picture industry. The Committee was motivated by the number of communists employed by Hollywood, and to ensure publicity for itself it called the most popular film stars of the day to testify in Washington. The refusal of a group of directors and writers, known as 'the Hollywood Ten', to co-operate with HUAC produced panic within the film industry. In the new Cold War climate communism was unpatriotic and tantamount to treason and any director, writer or actor found to have such sympathies would suffer a boycott of their films by religious and other right-wing groups. Faced with potential commercial failure, Hollywood's investors on Wall Street pressured the industry to fire such individuals, producing an unofficial blacklist from November 1947 onwards. The Motion Picture Association of America (formerly the MPPDA until 1945), rather than the government, imposed the blacklist. Anyone caught refusing to testify before HUAC was blacklisted, which meant a loss of work and usually led to social ostracism. Effectively, Hollywood purged itself of some of its most talented individuals, as those who were blacklisted fled or were forced to work under pseudonyms. The blacklist did not ease up until 1960, but many careers had been destroyed by then. The studios were afraid to produce any film that could be interpreted as communist or even left-wing; this led to a decline in serious-issue and social comment films. There was a fear of anything too new or too different, as uncertainty and apprehension fuelled by the Cold War, the atom bomb and the political tirades of Senator McCarthy characterized the 1950s. It was a time of safe, uncontroversial, bland and timid movies. In particular, two genres thrived: the anticommunist film, which lauded the American authorities, in particular the FBI (My Son John, 1952; / Was a Communist for the FBI, 1951), and the science fiction B-movie. Where the former genre was quite clearly pro-American in its sensibilities, the sci fi genre allowed for more ambiguity. Submerged in metaphors and analogies, these films dealt with themes such as atomic radiation (The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951), usually signified by shrinking/growing humans (The Incredible Shrinking Man, 1957) or by creatures exaggerated to gargantuan proportions (Them/, 1954), and communist invasion depicted by alien attack (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956; Invaders from Mars, War of the Worlds, both 1953). It was not until 1960 that public hysteria regarding communism had declined sufficiently to allow the film industry to return to its pre-1950 days. The Production Code was formally dropped in 1968 (although in practice it had been liberalizing since the early 1960s and Kubrick had tested it with Lolita in 1961), as it was recognized that cultural values had changed from those of the 1930s. The MPAA abandoned censorship altogether and instituted an advisory rating system instead. The Code and Ratings Administration (renamed the Classification and Ratings Administration in 1977) replaced the Production Code, introducing four categories: 'G' (General), 'M' (Mature), 'R' (Restricted) and 'X' (no under-18s permitted). Midnight Cowboy (1969) was the first major American film to carry an X certificate and to win Oscars nonetheless. These categories were eventually replaced by the following, which are still in current use: 'G' (General), 'PG' (Parental Guidance), 'PG-13' (Parental Guidance although some material may not be suitable for under-13s), 'R' (Restricted) and 'NC-17' (No-one under 17). Recently, power has been devolved to the local level and the central body only classifies films with respect to their content as suitable for various age groups. Since the MPAA dropped its censoring function, it is sometimes argued that there is no censorship in America, only classification. But how far is this the case given that film-makers work within the framework of an advisory system? Particular classifications still have potential commercial advantages over others; for

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example, the under-17 audience is crucial to box-office success while the 'NC-17' rating is dreaded, as some cinemas refuse to screen such films, TV networks won't carry their trailers and print ads are hard to place. This means that film-makers will act as self-censors in order to conform to a specific audience rating. Furthermore, some contracts oblige the production of films for distributors that are not above the 'R' rating. As a mark of this, only a handful of controversial films have been awarded 'NC-17', including The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989) and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986). Recently American Psycho (2000) initially received the 'NC-17' rating, but eight minutes of a sex scene were cut to appease market forces and its final rating was 'R'. We could say that the American system represents a form of preproduction self-censorship, rather than the external censorship of the UK where many cuts occur in postproduction. A surface comparison between the two countries suggests that it is easier to see how censorship and regulation affect film producers in the USA than in the UK.

Exercise 3.4 Using any national cinema of your choice, investigate how far film censorship and regulation have influenced film content at one specific point in history. You may wish to compare this with another national cinema at the same moment, or compare it with another moment from the same national cinema.

c o

n

c l El 0 u o

n

The topics of audiences and censorship and regulation are similar in several respects. They both help to shape film content in one form or another. Film producers, particularly in mainstream cinema, are concerned to understand their audiences in order to provide them with what they want or like. Similarly, censors, classifiers and regulators wish to protect film audiences from what they see as the harmful effects of particular film messages, but at the same time they are willing to account for the audience's attitudes, beliefs and values. Approaches to both the audience and censorship have changed over the course of the first hundred years of film history as the understanding of them has shifted according to changing circumstances. What was felt to be dangerous and how it affected those who watched it at the beginning of the twentieth century is very different in the twenty-first century. Although we do not know exactly where audience research and attitudes towards censorship are moving, we can be certain that they will develop and shift over the next hundred years.

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SUMMARY The concept of the audience is difficult to define and has changed over time, but it is essential to both the film industry and Film Studies, and can be distinguished from spectatorship. Audiences are not passive or uniform; rather, they are constituted by a number of factors and exist in very different circumstances. Film consumption is also influenced by a number of factors. In the UK it declined after the Second World War and then recovered dramatically in the mid-1980s. Regulation of film content and censorship have changed according to different social circumstances and have affected film content. The BBFC operates an external, postproduction classifying service for the UK film industry, while in the United States censorship and regulation have been voluntarily adopted by film producers themselves.

NOTE 1

This is the name given for the MPPDA by the majority of sources. Thompson and Bordwell's Film

History (1994), however, refers to the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association.

REFERENCES

up his Mind in a Presidential Campaign (2nd edn, New York: Columbia University Press, 1944).

BBFC Annual Report 1998 (London: BBFC, 1999). Jim Collins, Hilary Radner and Ava Preacher Collins (eds), Film Theory Goes to the Movies (London & New York: Routledge 1993). Eddie Dyja (ed.), BFI Film and Television Handbook 2000 (London: BFI, 1999). Umberto Eco, The Role of the Reader (London: Hutchinson, 1981). A Bigger Picture: The Report of the Film Policy Review Group (London: Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 1998). Jostein Gripsrud, 'Film audiences', in John Hill and Pamela Church Gibson (eds), The Oxford Guide to Film Studies (Oxford: Oxford University

David Morley, The Nationwide Audience (London: BFI, 1980). David Morley, Family Television (London: Comedia, 1986). Brian Pendreigh, 'Everything was in place for a clampdown on sex and violence. So where is it?', The Guard/an (30 April 1999), pp. 6-7. Jeffrey Richards, 'British film censorship', in Robert Murphy (ed.), The British Cinema Book (London: BFI, 1997), pp. 167-77. Janet Staiger, Interpreting Films: Studies in the Historical Reception of American Cinema (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992) Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell, Film History (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994).

Press, 1999), pp. 202-11. Stuart Hall et al. (eds), Culture, Media, Language (London: Hutchinson, 1980). Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson and Hazel Gaudet, The People's Choice: How the Voter Makes

FURTHER

READING

Martin Barker (ed.), The Video Nasties (London: Pluto Press, 1994).

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A u d i e n c e s

a n d

Gregory Black, The Catholic Crusade Against the Movies, 1940-1975 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998a). Gregory Black, Hollywood Censored: Morality

Codes, Catholics and the Movies (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998b). Francis G. Couvares (ed.), Movie Censorship and American Culture (Washington and London: Smithsonian Institute Press, 1996). Tom Dewe Matthews, Censored. What They Didn't

Allow You to See and Why: The Story of Film Censorship in Britain (London: Chatto & Windus, 1994). Thomas Doherty, Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex,

Immorality, and Insurrection in American

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61

Ros Hodgkiss, Media Effects and Censorship (London: Film Education, 1999). Lea Jacobs, The Wages of Sin: Censorship and the Fallen Woman Film 1928-1942 (Madison, Wl: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991). Charles Lyons, The New Censors: Movies and the Culture Wars (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997). Janet Staiger, Taboos and totems: cultural meanings of The Silence of the Lambs', in Jim Collins, Hilary Radner and Ava Preacher Collins (eds), Film Theory Goes to the Movies (London and New York: Routledge, 1993). Tana Wollen, Film and Audiences (London: Film Education, 1988).

Cinema, 1930-1934 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999).

FURTHER

VIEWING

Richard Falcon, Classified.' A Teacher's Guide to

Film and Video Censorship and Classification (London: BFI, 1994). Stephen Farber, The Movie Rating Game (Washington, DC: Public Affairs Press, 1972).

Sex, Censorship and the Silver Screen (llth Day Entertainment, 1995).

Cinema, the Media and Globalization Ownership of the Major Studios 62 Media Conglomerate Strategies 65 Concentration of Ownership 67 Globalization 68 Summary 70

A

s a study of film, this book focuses on films as texts that communicate meanings, audiences as consumers of films, and cinema as an industry that produces films. This

chapter is concerned with issues of ownership and power within cinema, while also placing the latter in the wider context of the media as a global phenomenon. What has become known as 'the media' consists of a number of industries including television, radio, print, music and of course cinema. It is increasingly the case that these industries cannot be seen as separate areas of activity; rather, they are often interlinked in terms of ownership and how they operate. Nor can we think of media industries and companies as functioning simply within individual countries. Media companies are increasingly multinational, and exist and operate across several countries. Furthermore, the marketing, distribution and consumption of media products have become globalized, with productions from one area of the world often being experienced elsewhere in very different cultures.

O W N E R S H I P

OF

THE

MAJOR

S T U D I O S

The major studios are well known to us already and have been referred to in Chapter 1. The names have been with us for more than 80 years: Columbia, Disney, MGM, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, United Artists, Universal, Warner Brothers. However, while the economic function of these companies essentially remains the same, their structure and conditions of ownership have changed dramatically. The above studios are, quite rightly, identified as large production companies in their own right; however, the size of these studios is put into perspective when we realize that they are just small parts of much larger multinational conglomerates that own a vast range of other companies, often with interlinking interests. As Richard Maltby notes, this restructuring of the film industry is nothing new and is now well established: In the late 1960s many of the majors merged with, or were taken over by, large corporations with diverse interests. This was only the first stage of a gradual reorientation in which

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film production and distribution companies have become components in multimedia conglomerates geared to the marketing of a product across a number of interlocking media. (Maltby, 1995, p. 75) Columbia Pictures (Figure 4.1) has existed since the early days of cinema, but the company's structure and ownership have changed considerably. In 1982 the Coca-Cola company bought Columbia, and in the same year Columbia itself formed TriStar Pictures as a means of diversifying its production facilities. Five years later the two companies were merged, resulting in what is now known as Columbia TriStar. Coca-Cola's venture into film production ended in 1989 when the Sony Corporation bought Columbia TriStar. Sony intended to ensure that its media hardware production would be complemented by media software, an area where it had failed when it developed its video system in the 1970s. Disney was not one of the original major studios and did not begin film production until 1923. However, the Walt Disney Company is now one of the biggest media groups in the world, its most profitable activities being the theme parks in the United States and Europe. The company had originally expanded into TV production in the 1950s, in association with ABC, in order to fund the development of its Disneyland theme park. Disney also formed the Buena Vista distribution company in 1953. In the 1980s it expanded its film production further with the creation of Touchstone Pictures in 1984. The 1990s saw further growth with the acquisition of Miramax Pictures in 1993 and ABC TV in 1996. Two other studio names that have survived from Hollywood's heyday are MGM and United Artists, though both companies have had their problems. By the 1970s MGM had virtually ceased film production and in 1980 United Artists was severely weakened after the costly mistake of Heaven's Gate, which resulted in a $40 million loss. The following year the two companies amalgamated to form MGM/UA. This company went on to form the distribution giant United International Pictures (UIP) in partnership with Paramount and Universal. MGM/UA has made a slow but steady recovery, though rumours of take-overs have never been far away. The 1990s saw the company re-establish itself through funding and distribution of the James Bond films.

Columbia: an old company in a modem world

Figure 4.1

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Paramount was one of the original major studios and was used as the test case for the 1948 anti-trust legislation. Like the other major studios, it is now part of a large multimedia conglomerate. In 1966 Paramount was bought by Gulf & Western and was eventually renamed Paramount Communications Inc. Viacom took over the company in 1994, bringing together television, publishing, radio and film interests. Viacom also owns the MTV channel and the international video rental company, Blockbuster. 20th Century Fox has existed in one form or another since 1915. In 1985 Rupert Murdoch applied for American citizenship in order to acquire American media interests. In the same year he bought 20th Century Fox. His multinational company News Corporation already had significant media interests around the world, including television and satellite companies and the UK based News International newspaper company. Universal Studios dates back to 1912 and has also been through several changes over the years. Universal was taken over by the Music Corporation of America (MCA) in 1962, although this was often perceived as a merger because of the use of the title MCA-Universal. However, MCA itself was bought up in 1990 by Sony's Japanese competitor, Matsushita, who hoped to match media production with media technology, which was their area of specialization with equipment such as TV sets, VCRs and CD/tape players. Matsushita had been successful with the launch of its video home system (VHS) in 1977. Although their video system was regarded by many as technically inferior to those of its competitors (Sony's Betamax system and Philips' V2000 system), it ensured success with the rights to more films for video release. Matsushita was less than successful with its venture into film though, and in 1995 it sold MCA and its assets, including Universal, to Seagram, a Canadian drinks company. In 1998 Seagram expanded its media empire with the purchase of Polygram, which produces films and owns 13 music companies, from Philips, who decided to concentrate on producing media hardware. In 2000 Vivendi, a French company with telecommunications interests, merged with Seagram to create Vivendi Universal, bringing together film, TV, satellite and Internet business interests. Warners' beginnings were in film production but the company eventually expanded to become co-partner of the world's largest multimedia conglomerate, Time-Warner Inc. Warners was already a conglomerate with a range of media interests by 1973, the year in which it renamed itself Warner Communication Inc. (WCI). In 1989 WCI merged with Time Inc. to create Time-Warner, a company with interests in film, video, television, music, distribution, exhibition and publishing. Time-Warner's position as world leader was further reinforced through the merger in 2000 with America On-Line (AOL), the Internet service provider, to form AOL-Time Warner.

Exercise 4.1 Look at your video collection or recall the last five films you have seen. What percentage of the films belong to / were produced by the six major studios?

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S T R A T E G I E S

There are particular reasons for the trend towards amalgamating companies into multinational conglomerates. The ultimate purpose of such companies, as business enterprises, is of course to make a profit, to be commercially successful. Large companies have the advantage of being able to provide the financial resources necessary for further expansion, developing new products or marketing existing products. Smaller companies can find it hard to compete with the economic power of large conglomerates; amalgamating companies through mergers and buy-outs concentrates ownership and can reduce competition, thus increasing the likelihood of financial success. Bringing together a range of media companies has its own particular benefits. The media are all about communication, and having interests in a variety of media industries places a conglomerate in a position where the various companies can in many instances promote the other areas of the conglomerate via, for instance, television, radio, newspapers, magazines or general marketing facilities. It is also the case that particular media products are often to be found duplicated in various media forms so that a film may have a television spin-off, a music soundtrack and magazines based on the original concept. The low-budget success Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) was turned into a British television series in 2000. It is to be noted that there has also been an increasing trend for television programmes to make the transition to film: The Addams Family, The Flintstones, Batman, Mission Impossible. With regard to media conglomerates, the links between hardware and software are becoming increasingly important. Media products such as films on VMS and DVD, television programmes and music CDs need technology such as VCRs, DVD players, TV sets and CD/tape players for them to be consumed. The entertainment industry, now largely constituted by media conglomerates, has already made major moves into acquiring hardware and software interests. With the growing importance of computer systems and digital technology, as seen in the advances made in digital television and Internet access, further inroads are likely to be made into media hardware industries. The multinational and global nature of the contemporary media industries is illustrated by the locating of media companies in a variety of countries and by the consumption of media products around the world, but is also well served by the growth of telecommunications technology ('tele' literally meaning 'over a distance'). The previously mentioned multinational conglomerates have been quick to take advantage of the possibilities offered by becoming 'multimedia'. For example the merger of AOL and Time-Warner means they are poised to take full advantage of the Internet. Increasing conglomeration has accelerated the trend towards perceiving films as only one part of a product line of toys, clothes, food, drink, video, computer games, comics, magazines and soundtracks (see Chapter 2). By 2000, News Corporation had developed extensive cross-media ownership, and owns 20th Century Fox and News International, as well as Fox Television, BSkyB satellite broadcasting and Star TV in Asia, and interests in Internet services, Australian newspapers and Latin American television. Murdoch's cross-media interests are frequently used to promote other areas of his media empire. His British newspapers, for example, often refer to his BSkyB satellite services.

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SONY Figure 4.2

Sony: a vertically integrated multinational conglomerate with media cross-over for synergy

The Sony Corporation (Figure 4.2) had originally concentrated on the production of media hardware such as TV sets, VCRs, CD and tape players, but with the acquisition of Columbia it expanded into software production. Sony's software interests have since developed beyond film production, with interests in exhibition through Loew's Theaters, TV production, video sales, and the purchase of CBS Records. The Sony Playstation systems have given the company a further foothold in hardware and software in the computer games industry. Behind Sony's expansion has been a strategy of synergy, whereby the various industries under its control are brought together to mutually benefit each other. Thus Sony televisions may be bought and used for screening its TV productions, Columbia's films, possibly on Sony videos, or for viewing a Playstation game. Similarly, music released by Sony's CBS division may be played on Sony CD or tape systems. AOL-Time Warner are ideally placed to practise synergy. It will readily be seen that a Warners' film may use a soundtrack produced by Warners' music division, use its distribution company, be screened at Warners' cinemas, be publicized in Time-Warner magazines, release the film via its video company and no doubt screen it on a Warners' television channel. AOL-Time Warner also plans its own shops for film merchandise and computer games based on its films. Time-Warner has on occasions also cleverly resurrected and re-used old products in new films. The company owns DC Comics, in which the original Batman character appeared, and of course produced four Batman films. Similarly, the original Warner Brothers cartoon characters were relaunched in Space Jam (1997), which combined cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny with actors through the use of computer technology. Vivendi Universal is a typical example of a vertically integrated company as a result of the previous activities of one of its subsidiaries, MCA. In 1977 MCA and Paramount jointly formed the Cinema International Corporation (CIO as a film distributor. Co-operation between film companies has become increasingly common as a means of pooling resources and specialisms to maximize profits (in 1975 20th Century Fox and Warners had coproduced The Towering Inferno). In 1987

MCA-Universal obtained part control of the

Cineplex Odeon chain and went on to form United Cinema International (UCI) as an exhibition chain with Paramount. Thus Vivendi Universal is a well-established, vertically integrated company, capable of producing films, distributing them and screening them in its own cinemas. Like the other major media conglomerates, Vivendi Universal also has music, television, Internet and publishing interests. Viacom is another company with elements of vertical integration, mainly due to the activities of its subsidiary, Paramount. Through its interests in the UIP distribution company and UCI exhibition chain, Paramount, like most of the major film companies, is again vertically integrated. The 1948 anti-trust legislation ending vertical integration in the USA was repealed in 1985 by the Republican administration, headed by B-movie actor Ronald Reagan. His administration pursued a laissez-faire economic policy which sought to reduce

Cinema,

the

Media

and

G l o b a l i z a t i o n

(e?j

government intervention in the economy, leaving the financial markets to govern themselves. Viacom's merger with CBS in 1999 ensured guaranteed access to television for Paramount films. The Disney Company provides an example of horizontal integration in the film industry: the purchasing of companies that are operating in the same area of production; in effect buying out a competitor. Thus when the Disney Company, as a production company, bought Miramax Pictures, it was expanding horizontally, in contrast to the previously mentioned examples of companies expanding vertically into other areas of the industry.

Exercise 4.2 Which of the films you have seen over the past year have been linked to other media forms through CD soundtracks, video copies, magazine articles, television screenings or documentaries?

C O N C E N T R A T I O N

OF

O W N E R S H I P

Continued horizontal integration would ultimately result in one company monopolizing a particular industry. However, it is unlikely that this will happen in the film industry, if only because anti-monopoly legislation should prevent such a development - though it is worth bearing in mind that, as we have seen, legislation preventing vertical integration was eventually repealed. Although the film industry is not monopolised by one company, it can certainly be described as an oligopoly, an industry that is dominated by a small number of companies. Essentially six companies control the international film industry: Disney, News Corporation, Vivendi Universal, Sony, AOL-Time Warner and Viacom (North America is the most profitable cinema market and in 1997 these companies accounted for 80 per cent of that market). Thomas Schatz sees no signs of change in the current media conglomerates' strategy of buying into the film industry and notes that 'Because movies drive the global marketplace, a key holding for any media conglomerate is a motion picture studio; but there is no typical media conglomerate these days due to the widening range of entertainment markets and rapid changes in new technology' (Schatz, 1993, p. 30). Ownership could become even more concentrated with the continuing expansion of telecommunications companies such as AT&T and Cable & Wireless and further amalgamations or take-overs involving software, hardware and distribution networks. Current trends and possible future developments with regard to ownership raise the question of whether concentration of ownership within the film industry and media as a whole is desirable. From a purely economic perspective, it could be argued that large multinational conglomerates are necessary nowadays as they are able to supply the huge budgets that contemporary films often seem to require. Smaller companies could not match the resources of the larger conglomerates. From a political perspective it could be argued that

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ownership has become concentrated in relatively few companies because they are the best at what they do and are the most competitive. From a capitalist perspective, a free market is desirable as competition results in the most effective companies surviving and consumers (so the theory goes) getting the best deal possible. However, it could also be argued that conglomerates are basically a cartel which tends to protect the position of each company and that in effect the companies do not really compete with each other. The power of the conglomerates makes it difficult for smaller independent companies to compete on equal terms, thus ensuring the survival of the conglomerates. Production companies that are referred to as independent are usually dependent on the major companies for finance or distribution, and they often end up being bought by majors or going bankrupt in the face of unfair competition; Orion went bankrupt in 1992 and Disney bought out Miramax in 1993. The increasing power of multinationals is thus undemocratic and undesirable. From a Marxist perspective, multinationals are the logical result of an economic system based upon profit rather than need. The concentration of capital is predictable and self-perpetuating and while the types of films and media products made are intended to meet consumer demand, that demand is itself created by expensive marketing campaigns. A Marxist analysis may also suggest that the media products supplied tend to embody values and beliefs that reinforce the position of a political and economic dominant class.

G L O B A L I Z A T I O N The concept of globalization is not new, and was foreseen by Marshall McLuhan in the 1960s when he referred to the 'global village' in which communication from one part of the world to another effectively eliminated physical distances, as if we were all living in the same community. The 1960s saw international communications networks expanding, a high point being satellite communication with its possibility of instantaneous mass communication between different countries via satellite and television. Such communication was, however, limited to developed areas of the world which possessed the requisite technology. Global, albeit not instantaneous, communication had of course been taking place for most of cinema's history through films; films are imported and exported to and from all parts of the world, in effect, providing an exchange between cultures. However, the obvious point to be noted is that the exchange is somewhat unbalanced. It tends to be American films and Western culture that are propagated around the world, with little in the way of non-American films and non-Western culture being allowed to return. An indication of the marginalization of films made outside Hollywood is the film category of 'World Cinema' used in many video rental shops in Britain, a handy label used to cover virtually anything made outside the USA, usually including British films. It is also interesting to note that when (in Britain) we refer to 'foreign films', we usually mean a film that uses a language other than English, ignoring the fact that (in the UK) American films are also 'foreign'. This illustrates the extent to which we have accepted American films and culture as being similar to our own.

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There isn't of course anything necessarily wrong with American films being consumed in all corners of the world; indeed, it could be claimed that US hegemony with regard to films is simply the result of Hollywood's production of the types of films that people around the world want to see. The suspicion remains, however, that as long as studio ownership and control of distribution and marketing generally remain with the USA, American films are likely to remain dominant. The implication behind such a scenario is that choice is limited. Although they question the degree to which cultural domination has taken place, Held et a/, concede that: within the West there has been some degree of homogenisation of mass cultural consumption, particularly among the young, and that it is spreading to the more affluent strata of the developing world, especially in East Asia and Latin America. In popular music, film and television a single product will be consumed in a multiplicity of places. There is also some evidence to suggest that this has, as a consequence, squeezed some domestic alternatives out of the market. The most obvious impact of US domination of, say, the UK film market is that it has become harder for UK film-makers to produce and distribute movies in Britain. (Held eta/., 1999, p. 373) The Indian film industry has shown remarkable resistance to American cinema, no doubt because of the long and well-established history of film production in India, but the point to note is that Indian cinema remains relatively isolated and Bollywood cannot compete globally with Hollywood. The subject of globalization has led to fierce debate because of the claim that the imbalance in global communications amounts to cultural imperialism. In effect, the values and beliefs and ways of life represented in American films are, it is argued, gradually eroding the traditional values and beliefs of other cultures. This does not just apply to non-Western cultures but also to Britain where, since the 1950s, it has been claimed by cultural theorists such as Richard Hoggart that there has been a gradual 'Americanisation' of society. Thus the replacement of indigenous cultures by what is argued to be predominantly American culture is seen as a form of imperialism in which one culture is controlled by another. The means by which this cultural imperialism is achieved extend beyond cinema and the media to the general exporting of consumer goods from one area of the world to another. A Marxist analysis identifies the relentless drive towards expansion, control of markets and the increased profits central to capitalist social organization as inevitably resulting in inequalities between developed and underdeveloped areas of the world in terms of economic and cultural independence. However, the argument is perhaps not quite as .straightforward as it first seems. We could for instance question the status of traditional culture, as it could be claimed that a people's way of life is always changing in one way or another, is always in a state of transition. Is there then an identifiable culture to be undermined? Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi has suggested, [a] conceptual challenge to the 'cultural imperialism1 model, stemming from new modes of analysing media effects which question the 'international hypodermic needle' assumption

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preferred by the 'hegemonic' model ... diverse audiences bring their own interpretative frameworks and sets of meaning to media texts. (Sreberny-Mohammadi, quoted in Curran and Gurevitch, 1991, p. 122) Certainly, different cultures may well interpret films in ways that suit their own values and beliefs (see Chapter 12 on Meaning and Spectatorship). In other words, American ideology will not necessarily be interpreted as such by another culture; rather, that culture may extract meanings from a film different from those intended by, for instance, an American studio. The marketing departments of the major studios are aware of cultural differences between audiences that may watch Hollywood films. The James Bond films of the 1980s and 1990s used different advertising campaigns depending on which countries they were promoting the films in; this was especially noticeable in the publicity posters used. None of this of course changes the fact that there is a far greater flow of films out of the United States than into it. Financial support from governments for their indigenous film industries would help redress the balance, but many countries do not have the surplus wealth necessary for such an initiative. But, then, a capitalist analysis emphasizes how competition, market forces and supply and demand ultimately determine what films are consumed, and where.

Exercise

4.3

1. What is the percentage of American films that you have seen over the last six months compared with non-American films? 2. Discuss your responses to US films. Do you think you 'read' such films in the same way as an American spectator would?

SUMMARY Cinema as a central part of the international entertainment industry is continuing to expand. Multinational conglomerates concentrate ownership in fewer and fewer hands, the emphasis being on creating huge multimedia companies that match the various areas of media production to each other in order to strengthen their position. Synergy and vertical integration are common strategies within these multinational conglomerates. Film production and media ownership are concentrated in the Western world, especially the United States, and this has been accompanied by a globalization process which has resulted in films and media goods tending to make their way from Western cultures to other cultures around the world. The tendency towards a one-way cultural transfer has arguably led to cultural imperialism by which Western values and beliefs perhaps undermine and replace indigenous cultures.

C i n e m a ,

the

Media

and

REFERENCES Jim Collins, Hilary Radner and Ava Preacher Collins (eds), Film Theory Goes to the Movies

(London: Routledge, 1993). James Curran and Michael Gurevitch, Mass Media and Soc/efy (London: Edward Arnold, 1991). David Held, Anthody McGrew, David Goldblatt and Jonathan Perraton, Global Transformations

(Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999). Richard Maltby, Hollywood Cinema (Oxford: Blackwell 1995). Thomas Schatz, The New Hollywood', in Jim Collins, Hilary Radner and Ava Preacher Collins (eds), Film Theory Goes to the Movies (London:

Routledge, 1993).

FURTHER READING Tino Balio (ed.), The American Film Industry (Madison, Wl: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985).

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James Curran, David Morley and Valerie Walkerdine (eds), Cultural Studies and

Communications (London: Arnold, 1996). Jim Hillier, The New Hollywood (London: Studio Vista, 1993). Garth Jowett and James Linton, Movies as Mass Communication (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1989). James Lull, Media, Communication, Culture: A Global Approach (Cambridge: Polity, 1995). Richard Maltby, Hollywood Cinema (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1995). Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi, Dwayne Winseck, Jill McKenna and Oliver Boyd-Barrett (eds), Media in Global Context (London: Arnold, 1997). Janet Wasko, Hollywood in the Information Age (Cambridge: Polity, 1994). FURTHER VIEWING Global Culture (BBC, 1992).

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Film Technology Technology, Industry and Audience 75 The Camera 76 Sound 78 Colour 80 Deep Field Photography 81 Projection Technologies 82 Computer and Digital Technology 85 The Future 89 Summary 90

I

n this chapter we shall focus on the ways in which film as a specific form of communica-

tion requires technology. In Chapter 7 on Early Cinema and Film Form, we shall examine

the emergence of photography, the development of the zoetrope and its provision of the first moving images. Here we shall trace the main developments in film technology over the last century, focusing on the camera, sound, colour, deep field photography, projection technologies and computer and digital technologies.

T E C H N O L O G Y ,

I N D U S T R Y

A N D

A U D I E N C E

In some senses, the history of film is a hundred-year tale of innovation as film-makers attempted to translate stories into moving images. Film has always relied upon technology; as a form of art, it is one of the most technological. Arguably, cinema is technology and thus examining technology is crucial to understanding film itself. Technological developments have affected film-making in two ways: film-makers have utilized new technologies to make films, and films have consequently increasingly reflected on the consequences of the use of such technology. As media guru Marshall McLuhan put it, 'the medium is the message'. It is not our intention, however, to present technological developments as a simple or uninterrupted linear progression. As will be seen, improved film technology was not always welcomed initially or used immediately upon its emergence. Indeed, in many cases, the technology already existed some years (even decades) prior to its widespread adoption. The explanation behind this delay can partly be explained by the studios' assessment that the initial expense was too great and too risky and would disrupt the financial status quo. The adoption of new processes closely mirrored their context. The initial financial risks of investing in new technology were later justified by potentially greater losses in revenue by

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not doing so. Thus, rather than being led by the new technology itself, the film industry reacted to social, economic and cultural factors (usually declining audiences) by utilizing new processes. In this way, it sought to regenerate itself and to present cinema as a 'novel' experience. As in any industry, complacency could lead to stagnation. Furthermore, just as the studios had specialized in particular genres or sets of genres in an attempt to attract customer brand loyalty through product differentiation (see Chapter 1), the adoption of new technologies led to each studio attempting to outdo its rivals in the bid for a greater market share.

THE

C A M E R A

The camera is the device with which the cinematographer captures a series of progressive images on a strip of film. Early pioneers in cinematography struggled with the problem of capturing clear, sharp moving images and were indebted to a combination of three constituent technologies, two of which were not particularly new. Lens manufacture, for example, had already become a healthy industry in the years since 1827, when photography was invented. The technology for rapidly repeated exposure of a light-sensitive emulsion to light admitted through an aperture had also existed for some time: all that was needed was a motor designed to turn at the appropriate speed which triggered repeated opening and closing of the aperture, initially 16 or 18 times per second (24 after the coming of sound in 1927-29), to take this number of photographs each second. It was a relatively simple matter to adapt the kind of mechanism used in a sewing machine, which had been invented in the 1840s. The last piece of the technological jigsaw to be developed was the flexible celluloid emulsion-coated strip which could weave its way through the motor without breaking. Early experiments such as those of Eadweard Muybridge and Jules Marey (who were interested in studying movement rather than inventing film) in the 1880s had generally been carried out with non-flexible plates, but in 1888/89 George Eastman developed the first flexible film, made first of paper, then celluloid. He christened this 'Kodak'. Over a century later it is too easy to forget how established much of the early technology was to become. Although the Lumiere camera-projector was hand-cranked (and so could be used in the most remote locations with no need for electricity), basic camera technology had changed little a century later; the four-sprocket 35mm film developed by Edison has remained standard and the earliest films can easily be shown on the most modern film projectors. Initially, cameras were static, and most movement was restricted to panning and tilting from a fixed tripod. There were early experiments such as placing the camera on a boat or a train; the Lumiere brothers and D.W. Griffith moved their cameras, but to a limited extent. The cinematographer of F.W. Murnau's The Last Laugh (Der letzte Mann, 1924), Karl Freund, however, was the first to move the camera backwards and forwards, up and down and side to side, to great dramatic effect. The style of German Expressionism (of which Murnau was an exponent) gradually found its way into Hollywood film. The introduction of sound, however, introduced particular problems for camera movement. Omni-directional microphones often picked up the sound of the noisy camera. As a

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result, cameras were encased within soundproofed, static 'iceboxes', which limited movement, allowing only 30-degree tilts and pans. During the 1930s, dubbing or post-synchronization released the camera from its icebox. Camera mobility was further facilitated by the invention of the blimp - a lightweight, soundproof casing that muffled the whirr of the camera's motor. Tracking was made easier by the introduction of a wide range of camera supports, manoeuvrable dollies and boom cranes. It is alleged that the first actual crane shot was developed for Paul Fejos' Broadway in 1929, but perhaps its finest moment came in Gone with the Wind (1939) when the camera tracks Scarlett O'Hara walking among the Civil War casualties at the railroad station. Crane shots give a remarkable scope of choices to the film-maker; s/he can follow an actor up a flight of stairs; pass over crowds of people and focus on a single person; track an individual from a distance; move over obstacles; move off from heights and into space or provide an aerial view of a scene. In 1922 and 1923 respectively, 9.5mm cameras and 16mm film stock (in contrast to the professional 35mm) were introduced, which meant smaller and lighter cameras and less expensive filming. Cameras became (just about) light enough to be hand-held, significantly assisting the development of documentary film. During the 1940s, a new generation of documentary film-makers became increasingly dissatisfied with the sedate tripod-restricted techniques of established documentary, and encased the camera in lighter metal to make it more portable. In 1960, Andre Coutant used a prototype of a silent-running, hand-held 16mm camera to make Jean Pouch's Chronicle of a Summer (Chronique d'un ete); the new camera was marketed as the Eclair in 1962. This allowed film-makers to move into areas once too restrictive for filming and allowed close tracking of movement. Hand-held camera movement produces an unsteadiness which can be used for a variety of effects, such as 'realism', immediacy or grittiness, as it can represent a character's point of view or emphasize the camera operator's situation amidst the action. The introduction of the steadicam by Garrett Brown in 1973 allowed for hand-held-style shots combined with smooth movement. Rather than using dolly track to produce smooth camera movement, the camera was strapped to its operator by means of a hydraulic brace incorporating a series of shock absorbers. This removed the shakes and bumps that accompanied footage recorded by a hand-held camera, allowing free movement over rough terrain or where track could not be laid, for example on steps. Steadicam was used notably to follow Sylvester Stallone running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Rocky (1976). Its most notable user was Stanley Kubrick, who used it for several sequences in The Stoning (1980).

Exercise 5.1 Look at sequences from Rocky, The Shining and/or Breaking the Waves (von Trier, 1996) and any other films of your choice. Try to identify the types of camera movement used.

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Advances in camera mobility seem to have been derived principally from aesthetic rather than commercial choices, the impetus being from the individual film-maker who desired to create a certain effect. Indeed, where camera mobility conflicted with commercial considerations like the introduction of sound, it was readily discarded as sound film was seen to be a greater crowd puller than camera movement.

SOUND The transition from silent to sound film was not a harmonious one. Experiments with sound began with the birth of motion pictures itself and between 1900 and 1925 sound systems proliferated. The studios, however, were unwilling to invest the sums needed to convert to sound production and they did not want to tamper with a profitable business. Initially, it was feared that conversion to sound might herald the collapse of the film industry itself. New sound studios would have to be constructed, cinemas would have to be wired for sound, a huge back catalogue of silent films would become redundant, the foreign market would collapse as easily translated titles would have to be dubbed and stars would need to be retrained. Sound was also vigorously opposed by film theorists and directors such as Munsterberg, Arnheim, Chaplin and Kurosawa, who felt that cinema might be permanently hindered by the public's fascination with a passing fad. Two studios, however, perceived the situation somewhat differently, acknowledging that sound enhanced the film-viewing experience, but that full-scale pit orchestras and Wurlitzer organs were too expensive. After the First World War, the search for a cheap but effective way of recording film sound intensified. Fox Film Corporation began developing their own sound system - Movietone - at the same time as Warners, believing that the introduction of sound in their studios and cinemas would allow them to compete with the pit orchestras of their rivals, had acquired a sophisticated sound-on-disc system called Vitaphone. In 1926 they presented Don Juan in Vitaphone followed by The Jazz Singer in 1927, heralding the introduction of sound in terms of music and effects. Just prior to The Jazz Singer, Fox had presented Sunrise (1927) using their competing system, Movietone. This sound technology, however, was only single-track, meaning that it was not possible to have both soundtrack music and dialogue at the same time. Audiences, therefore, still had to wait for speech, as the dialogue-only sections of the film were still communicated by titles. Warners, though, shrewdly allowed some of Jolson's ad-libbed dialogue to remain in the finished film and audiences were amazed not only by the singing and dancing Jolson, but also by his informal and spontaneous speech. At one point, he tells the audience, 'You ain't heard nothing yet.' The Jazz Singer was an international success grossing over $3.5m. This was followed by the release of The Lights of New York - the first completely sound commercial film - in 1928. The popular success of these films showed that sound attracted large audiences and, therefore, could not be ignored. In a bid to catch up with Fox and Warners, the other studios rapidly converted to sound production. In part, the impetus was economic. Audiences had been declining since 1926, 1927 had been a bad year for Hollywood (with the exception of

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Warners) and the forecast for the following year was worse. The public seemed to be bored by formulaic production methods and heavily promoted stars. In addition, cinema was facing competition from the wider availability of cars and radios. Following the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the United States was thrown into an economic depression which further affected the film industry, and sound was the new attraction to lure audiences back into the cinemas. By 1932, silent films had been largely forgotten and 'talkies' helped to distract American audiences from the harsh realities of everyday life. The major Hollywood studios were also keen to extend their grip over the film industry abroad and so began converting European cinemas to sound in order to capitalize on sound's popularity. The UK, in particular, became the major foreign market for Hollywood sound films. The effect of sound on the film industry was radical. The camera's mobility became restricted as it now had to be enclosed in a soundproof booth, actors were grouped around concealed microphones, and close ups and complex editing were all but abandoned. Many silent film stars lost their jobs as their voices were not adequate and they were replaced by a new wave of Broadway actors, accompanied by scriptwriters who could write dialogue the 1952 musical comedy Singin' in the Rain addressed exactly this subject. Sound led to the creation of new genres and the decline of old ones. The comedies of the Marx brothers and W.C. Fields replaced those of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Musicals, in particular, benefited immensely from the developments in sound technology. Initially, musicals were little more than unsophisticated, photographed versions of Broadway productions, but they developed so quickly that by 1933 they had become a major Hollywood genre. The acoustic interiors of cinemas were transformed from concert halls to spaces with fewer echoes, thus increasing the comprehensibility of the dialogue. By the mid-1930s, soundtrack dubbing (whereby other soundtrack elements like music and sound effects would automatically be lower in volume under the recorded dialogue) and post-synchronization (post-recording sound, particularly dialogue, after the film has been shot and edited so that the new sound is synchronized with the on-screen images) had been perfected. This allowed film-makers to include overlapping lines, off-screen dialogue and voice-over narratives. Films could now be dubbed into foreign languages easily, which meant that Hollywood films could be enjoyed around the globe. Initially, the soundtrack was recorded on discs that were synchronized with the film, but this proved to be unreliable and gave way to the optical recording of sound onto the film stock itself. By the 1950s this was in turn replaced by sound recorded on magnetic tape and played back in optical stereophony to accompany the new widescreen formats (see below). Indeed, it was the arrival of these formats that led to the almost total conversion from optical to magnetic sound recording. In the following decade more improvements such as the Dolby System were developed; this reduced background noise, producing better fidelity for the soundtrack. Sound designer Walter Murch pioneered the use of sound technology to revolutionize film soundtracks in such a way that music and other sound effects combined with visual images to produce a harmonious whole. Using multi-track sound, Murch filled the cinema with noise, for example, the synthesized whirr of the helicopter blades in Apocalypse Now. Such techniques, though taken for granted today, were innovative at that time.

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Originally stereophonic, Dolby has now become Surround Sound, filling cinemas with sound effects and music from speakers located both to the side and to the rear of the audience. During the 1980s two rival systems were introduced: George Lucas' THX Sound System, premiered with his Return of the Jed/ in 1983, and Digital Theatre Systems, which is by far the more popular format. Currently, in 2000, sound is being digitized, which has made postproduction simpler and more flexible while giving greater clarity, resonance, range and fidelity inside the cinema. Although some films are still released with only an analogue soundtrack, more and more are released for digital audio systems. In the early days of film sound, dialogue and singing were privileged, but newer sound technology allows the recording of multi-track sound, of complex layers on the same soundtrack. Now, sound, music and dialogue can co-exist, lending a heightened 'realism' and greater emotional power.

Exercise 5.2 Discuss how far technological advances have contributed to the success of the film industry.

C O L O U R Again, as was the case with sound, colour technology was experimented with from the earliest days of the cinema (Melies hand-tinted his films), but was rarely used because of technical difficulties, the time-consuming nature of hand-colouring and the expense involved. Even the commercial success of Technicolor's first two-strip feature, The Toll of the Sea (1922), did not lead to a major conversion to colour production; nor did use of improved Technicolor in films like On with the Show and Gold Diggers of Broadway (both 1929). By 1932 production of Technicolor films had all but stopped as audiences were unsatisfied with the two-colour process, but in 1934 Technicolor bounced back with Rouben Mamoulian's Becky Sharp, using a three-strip of cyan, magenta and yellow. Its commercial success led to the release of further three-colour films culminating in Gone with the Wind (1939) (Figure 5.1) and The Wizard of Oz (1939), the latter of which dramatically highlights the transition from black and white to colour as Dorothy enters the fantastic land of Oz. Earlier, in 1937, Walt Disney had released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - the first animated colour feature film. The commercial viability of colour had been established, but its rise was interrupted by the onset of the Second World War. Film-makers began to use colour widely during the 1950s for two main reasons. First, the newly developed Eastmancolor was both cheaper and more convenient and had successfully challenged Technicolor's monopoly. By 1953, it had replaced Technicolor as the most widely used colour film stock. Second, the increased competition from television is the primary explanation for. Hollywood's speedy shift from black-and-white to colour

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Image Not Available

Early Technicolor was a major attraction (Selznick/MGM, courtesy Kobal)

production between 1952 and 1954. The major studios attempted to respond to the advent of television, which had enticed 30 per cent of the cinema-going audience away from the big screen, by singling out and highlighting film's advantages over black-and-white television: size (see below) and colour. In 1947 approximately 12 per cent of Hollywood's films were in colour, but by 1954 this had increased to over 50 per cent. Nonetheless, by the end of the 1950s 50 per cent of Hollywood films were still in black and white, which was only abandoned when television converted to colour in the 1960s. Although colour had become the norm for high-budget productions, low-budget films, particularly the independent science fiction and horror B-movies of the 1950s, tended to remain in black and white primarily as a result of commercial considerations. Since the 1950s, colour cinematography has vastly improved in subtlety and sophistication and today the overwhelming majority of mainstream commercial films are in colour. Those that remain in black and white are so either for financial reasons (e.g. independent films like Clerks, 1993) or for aesthetic ones (e.g. Schindler's List, 1993). Such aesthetic choices are also often linked to 'diegetic motivation': the choice between black and white and colour can be explained in terms of the narrative. The black-and-white ver/te-style footage in The Blair Witch Project can be 'explained' as student research material.

DEEP

F I E L D

P H O T O G R A P H Y

Just as there was for sound and colour technologies, there was a gap between the technological possibility of deep field photography and its acceptance and use. Deep field photography had always been possible in sunlight and even the Lumiere brothers had used it, but Hollywood cinematographers resisted departures from the established style of soft tonal qualities and shallow depth of field. The emergence of deep focus cinematography as an acknowledged visual style is usually dated to Gregg Toland's cinematography for Citizen Kane (1941), but Jean Renoir had employed deep focus in the late 1930s (La Grande illusion, 1937; Rules of the Game/La Regie du jeu, 1938), as had John Ford in Stagecoach (1939). But it was Citizen Kane that introduced the technique to the wider public (see also

Figure 5.1

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Chapter 6 on the Language of Film). Deep field cinematography simultaneously keeps all planes of an image - foreground, middleground and background - in equally sharp focus, giving the viewer the whole scene without guiding his/her attention. In contrast, shallow focus guides the audience's viewing by emphasizing a single plane of the image, usually the action, behind or in front of which everything else is blurred. The emergence of deep field photography (see also next chapter) can be traced to two main considerations. The first factor in the use of deep focus was the rise in photojournalism and the social realist and documentary film movements of the 1930s. Influenced by these movements, film-makers increasingly made an aesthetic decision to replicate the perspective and realism of this photographic style. The second factor was the availability of new filmmaking equipment. From the mid-1930s to 1939, improved carbon arc lights replaced the silent Mazda incandescent tungsten lamps (another side-effect of the coming of sound), and faster film stock (which was more sensitive to light), enhanced emulsion types and new lens coatings allowed light to be used more efficiently, leading to more effective screen illumination, image contrast and sharpness of focus. These technological developments enable a fast shutter speed to be combined with a small aperture, which results in deep focus. Although the use of deep focus seems to derive from an aesthetic choice based on the accessibility of new technology, an economic dimension on the part of the studios can also be observed as they strove to improve their market position by developing a new look for their films.

P R O J E C T I O N

T E C H N O L O G I E S

Since the earliest days of film, film entrepreneurs have struggled with different ways of exhibiting films. Projection refers to the process whereby photographed images are projected on a screen (and thus enlarged) so that their rapid consecutive appearance creates the illusion of movement through persistence of vision (and/or via the phi-phenomenon). It was the Lumiere brothers - whose ownership of a factory manufacturing photographic materials was no doubt a great help - who developed the projection system which immediately spread all over the world. The remarkable feature of the system was its simplicity and compactness: the same basic hand-cranked motor served to operate both the camera and the projector, which formed a portable unit. The same system could also be adapted for developing and printing the film. In the first year of their operations, the Lumiere brothers trained several dozen camera operators/projectionists, who promptly travelled to all parts of the world, where they filmed the early 'actualities', developed and printed the film themselves, and often projected the results for the amazed locals. During the silent era films were filmed and projected at the rate of 16-20 frames per second (fps), the speed being variable as the motor was at first cranked by hand. With the advent of sound and the need for standardization to enable sound-image synchronization, a common speed of 24 fps was agreed on (and for films converted to video this has become 25 fps). This is why characters in silent films screened at 24 or 25 fps seem to move so quickly!

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For the remainder of this chapter, we will concentrate on the film industry's response to declining audience trends from the 1950s onwards, which led it to release new films in new formats and to introduce new projection and viewing technologies, the most significant being widescreen, 3D, IMAX/OMNIMAX and digital projection.

Widescreen Widescreen refers to any film screening for which the ratio of the width of the projected image to its height (called the aspect ratio) is greater than 4:3 or 1.33:1 -the standard ratio used in the industry from silent film until the early 1950s, also called the Academy format. During the 1920s there were experiments with several different widescreen systems in Hollywood, such as Magnascope, Fox Grandeur, Vitascope and 70mm Wide Film, but these processes were expensive and did not provide high quality pictures. Meanwhile, in France, Napoleon (1927) was screened using 'Polyvision', whereby three projectors showed a triptych of images across three screens to create a panoramic shot. This process was improved in 1952 when Cinerama (based on Gance's Polyvision) introduced a curved screen, stereophonic sound and three projectors. The screen went beyond the field of vision, which is 160 degrees, giving the illusion that the audience was actually 'in' the film. In the following year, 20th Century Fox brought out The Robe using its cheaper widescreen alternative, CinemaScope, which required only a single camera with a special anamorphic lens (again such lenses had already been made in the nineteenth century) that squeezed an image onto standard 35mm stock, which was then stretched back to its original format during projection. Screens were double the width of the normal screen and slightly curved to give the illusion of depth. CinemaScope was so successful (by 1955 more than 20,000 cinemas around the world had installed it) that foreign companies copied the system, using similar names - Franscope (France), Ultrascope (Italy), Agascope (Sweden), Sovscope (USSR) and Tohoscope (Japan). Paramount responded by introducing its own process, VistaVision, and this was soon joined by Todd-AO. From 1960 onwards, however, Robert Gottschalk's Panavision gradually superseded all of these widescreen processes, so that it is now almost the only process used in 35mm widescreen filming. Despite its expense and difficulty of use, the studios were keen to invest in widescreen during the 1950s because audiences, unable to resist the allure of television, were declining: cinema attendance dropped from 90m per week in 1948 to 51m in 1952. It has also been argued that during the post-war period, American audiences had a greater choice of leisure activities and many were now moving to the newly established suburbs, away from city-centre cinemas. As a result, films had to engage their audiences in a more spectacular fashion. The 1950s widescreen, employing a ratio of at least 1.66:1, provided a visual experience that television could not emulate, and this was exploited by film-makers. The new, altered screen formats led to a dramatic change in m/se en scene as directors began to use horizontal space much as depth of field was explored during the 1940s. Editing became secondary to shooting long, uninterrupted scenes, as each frame was now wide enough to display a close up, a medium shot and a wide angle simultaneously. The viewer

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was involved in the space of the film and brought closer to the action with a greater immediacy than ever before. Particular genres, such as historical or epic dramas (The Ten Commandments, 1956) and westerns (The Searchers, 1956) became natural choices for the widescreen format. Indeed, post-studio system Hollywood's taste for the blockbuster was facilitated by the new technology (see Chapter 1 on Hollywood).

3D 3D, whereby the three-dimensional illusion of depth is created by making the foreground stand out in relation to the other planes of the image, was experimented with as early as the 1920s. It did not take off, however, until the 1950s, when Hollywood used the technology as a further ploy to draw audiences away from their TV sets and back into the cinemas. In 1952, 3D projection called Natural Vision was introduced with Arch Obeler's Bwana Devil, and 69 Natural Vision films were made by the end of the following year. Other studios released 3D productions and soon more technical innovations were pioneered: Vistarama, Superscope, Naturama, AromaRama and Smell-0-Vision. These processes, however, were flawed, expensive and failed to attract a lasting audience. They were novelties that were deemed not to be worth the expense and they died out after a few years. During the 1960s, the main advance was the new optical system, Panavision, which allowed 35mm film to be enlarged to 70mm width without the need or expense of wide film production.

IMAX and OMNIMAX The above widescreen processes have, however, been improved upon and surpassed by the advent of IMAX 3D technology, which premiered in 1970 in Japan, and the first IMAX cinema opened at Ontario Place's Cinesphere in Toronto the following year. IMAX' stands for 'image maximization' or 'maximum image', as it fills the field of human vision by producing an image as large as 20 metres high and 26 metres wide. IMAX uses a 15-perforation/70mm film format, which is not only supposedly the largest in the world, but is ten times bigger than that of conventional 35mm film. The size and scale produce extraordinary clarity and sharpness. A six-channel Surround Sound soundtrack is synchronized with the film, and the audience sits on a series of elevated rows at a 30-45 degree gradient and so feels immersed in the picture. Since 1996 approximately 200 IMAX cinemas have opened world-wide, including the BFI cinema at Waterloo, London. Reflecting the 1950s, IMAX technology can project films in both 2D and 3D. The spectator wears a special headset with left and right liquid-crystal lenses and a 'personal sound environment' that encases the six-channel soundtrack. OMNIMAX (or IMAX DOME) uses the same system, but with a fisheye lens for projecting a 165-degree image on a giant dome screen surrounding the viewer with high-fidelity sound, thus increasing the spectator's feeling of immersion. IMAX technology has not, however, spread throughout the industry. Films must be specially shot and are shown in purpose-built cinemas. The system's use of 3D is still some distance from 'realism' and the screen at times proves to be too large for comfortable viewing.

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Digital Projection In the summer of 1999, The Phantom Menace was the first film to be screened in the United States using digital projection equipment. Computers, microchips and liquid-crystal displays replaced the traditional projector and reels of film. Where traditional analogue projection uses a signal corresponding to the original light and sound waves of the subject, digital projection converts the image and sound into an electronic coding through a binary series of zeroes and ones. In 2000, Toy Story 2 was the first film screened in the UK using digital projection. As Michael Atkinson stated, it was 'the first time in the history of the 104-year-old medium that a movie made its way from conception to execution to projection without ever involving a single foot of film' (2000, p. 9). Atkinson does not make the point, however, that arguably the medium itself is no longer 'film' per se as it no longer always uses film. Digital projection hints at the end of the traditional pattern of film production and distribution that has been the norm for over a century. No longer will image and sound need to be captured on moving reels of negative film that are then developed, cut and spliced together, and transported to cinemas to be projected by bright light onto giant white screens. Instead, digital films can be beamed directly via satellite from studio to exhibitor with no loss in quality. At present, film distribution is vastly expensive and hence a whole industry has grown around it. Hundreds, if not thousands, of copies of films are distributed around the world at a cost of £3m for a global release. Since the advent of digital technology, however, such inconvenience and expense may become redundant. Digital projection may soon become the norm, not least because digital 'film' is much cheaper to shoot, and the new technology allows the film-maker to capture much more footage than do conventional film and cameras.

C O M P U T E R

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Unlike most of the technologies considered in this chapter, computer and digital processes are relatively new developments. But as for the other technologies, their adoption by the film industry has involved a combination of commercial and aesthetic considerations. Digital technologies have provided the means for creating new and different special effects images through computer generated imagery (CGI) (it should be noted that the initials are also used to refer to 'computer graphic interface' or to 'computer gateway interface'). They have made production and postproduction techniques more efficient. They have allowed the creation of new types of entertainment product, such as video and computer games, theme rides and virtual reality (VR) experiences. And finally, they have provided new avenues for distribution: CD-ROM, the Internet, satellite and cable, laser discs and DVDs.

Special Effects The desire to create artificial yet plausible worlds for their films has occupied film-makers since the beginning. This led to photorealism, the attempt to produce images of photographic appearance and quality. Melies developed 'trick film' or special effects for his films

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during the first years of cinema, but though special effects were attempted, often they were not very photorealistic. Even 60 years on during the 1950s, for example, the science fiction genre, which relied heavily on special effects to create its extra-terrestrial props and settings, was relegated to B-movie status because of the poor quality of these effects. It was not until 1968 that Stanley Kubrick was able to create a Virtual reality', and in doing so he revolutionized the genre and the use of special effects. His 2001: A Space Odyssey was the product of innovative use of sophisticated technology such as blue screen photography, travelling mattes, scale models and front and rear projection. Kubrick set new standards and it was almost a decade before anyone attempted to emulate him. George Lucas' Star Wars used computer-co-ordinated camera movement CDykstraflex') to produce a seamless fusion of special effects and live-action footage. By the end of the 1970s film had integrated special effects, which had originally begun as mere spectacle, as central to both narrative and mise en scene.

Exercise 5.3 Do technologies that result in films achieving greater 'realism' reduce the need for the audience to use its imagination, thereby resulting in less involvement in the production of meaning?

CGI It was not until the 1980s, however, that computer technology had advanced sufficiently to allow film-makers to incorporate wholly computer-generated imagery into their films. Disney's Tron (1982) was the first film to combine live-action footage with 3D CGI, which took up a total of five minutes of screen time. The film both used and reflected upon this use of CGI, as its protagonist was a computer whizz-kid trapped inside his computer. Although the film's mise en scene was relatively primitive and based on limited technology, it had a profound effect on film-making, in particular in the science fiction genre. In 1984, The Last Starfighter incorporated 27 minutes of CGI. From the late 1980s onwards, computer and digital processes then developed with amazing rapidity, reflecting the growth of and advances in the high-tech industries. Almost annually a new technique was, and still is, introduced into film-making. These developments can only be described as a 'digital revolution'. In 1989, a vastly improved CG effect known as morphing appeared in James Cameron's The Abyss in the form of a fluid 3D seawater creature, known as a 'pseudopod', capable of mimicking any organic or artificial form in its surroundings. At that time, morphing was an experimental process and the creature only appeared in the film's climax. In 1991, however, Cameron advanced this technique to an entirely new level of impressiveness in his sequel to Terminator (1984), 12: Judgement Day (1991). In T2, Cameron introduced the T1000 cyborg - a humanoid android capable of morphing into almost any animate or inanimate thing - as a central plot device. Not only did the T1000 appear

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throughout the film, but the quality of its morphing was also extremely sophisticated. The integration of the special effects with the actors was almost seamless and the film has been seen as 'groundbreaking in its digital special effects, in particular the sophistication and photorealistic quality' of its imagery (Michael Allen, 1999, p. 63). Throughout the 1990s, many films incorporated CGI into their narratives; often the special effects themselves became the main feature. In 1993 Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park created the first CG dinosaurs and the following year The Mask employed some of the same tools to produce effects that had previously only been seen in animation. CGI is also used in postproduction to add colour, to remove support wires used for stunts, to insert images or to integrate separate photographic images into a film. This is known as electronic compositing - the manipulation of film images. Forrest Gump (1994), for example, uses computer and digital technology to place its eponymous hero in a variety of historical settings with a range of historical characters. Since then, CGI has made unlikely, and probably unobserved, appearances in many films, such as Elizabeth and Waking Ned Devine (both 1998). Perhaps the high point of digital and computer technologies during the twentieth century came with Titanic (1997) and The Matrix (1999). In the former, the entire ship is resurrected from the seabed and brought back to life, whereas in the latter, the protagonist, Neo (Keanu Reeves), is seen to walk up walls, hover through the air and dodge missiles in 'a breathtaking mode of temporal mangling known as "bullet time'" (Bennun, 1999, p. 29). 'Bullet time' is the appearance of people or objects being suspended or moving slowly in mid-air while the camera seems to track around them to give different visual perspectives. The effect is achieved by placing a large number of still or movie cameras in an arc around the subject, then operating them at exactly or almost the same time. The almost simultaneous shots from each camera are then edited together and synchronized using computer technology to create the impression of a camera tracking round the subject while it is suspended, or moving slowly, in mid-air.

Pixa r Animation in particular has benefited from the advances in computer and digital technology as the new processes are less expensive, speedier and more versatile than traditional methods. In 1986 Pixar released its first fully realized digitally animated short film, Luxo Jr. The landmark in digital animation, however, arrived in 1995 when Disney's Toy Story was the first ever feature-length film to rely exclusively on 3D CGI. Using Pixar technology, Toy Story was made entirely on computer with not one single frame being shot using conventional methods. Nonetheless, the film still preserved the tempo and illusion of camera movement and sophisticated live action. Since then several other fully digitally animated films have been produced (Antz and A Bug's Life, both 1998), and Toy Story 2 (2000) amazed critics and audiences alike with its advances in animation. While it is the product of an aesthetic choice, the use of CGI also reflects one of Hollywood's long-held concerns - economy. The use of digital and computer processes is sometimes cheaper than building an entirely new set or filming on location. In Fight Club (1999), for example, budget restrictions determined that CGI would be more cost-effective

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than building a giant kitchen for one particular sequence. In other films like In the Line of Fire (1993), Forrest Gump and Titanic, CGI was also used to generate large crowd scenes using only a small number of real extras who were duplicated and multiplied, saving money in wages and crowd control. Such technology is thus increasingly used as one of the ways in which production costs can be minimized. At the same time, films using these special effects have been immensely popular with audiences, and therefore some commentators see a link between the use of such technology and maximizing a film's revenues and argue that elaborate special effects are so bankable that rather than being used to tell a narrative, new films are written around them. Many of the films mentioned above have been high earners, suggesting a link between sophisticated special effects and box-office figures.

E x e r c i s e 5 .4 Look at any film which relies on CGI (e.g. Titanic, Independence Day). Are the effects achieved 'photorealistic? Can you see a difference between the real actors and props and the special effects; do they blend together seamlessly or is there a noticeable difference?

T e c h Noir Just as advanced technologies have emerged for creating improved special effects, the very films that have used them to greatest effect have also reflected on the potential of technology. Science fiction films in particular have tended to reflect on the latest technological developments and on possible future technologies. Space travel was the subject of Georges Melies' Journey to the Moon (1898), while Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1926) (Figure 5.2)

Image Not Available

Figure 5.2

Metropolis: futuristic technology (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

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envisaged a future set in the year 2000. The future and space and time travel have continued to fascinate film-makers ever since. In the 1950s, the classic sci fi 'B-movies' meditated on atomic and nuclear technology, particularly on the effects of radioactivity. In 1968, Kubrick's 2001 (its title a homage to Metropolis) examined the implications of computer malfunction (in this case the computer is called HAL, which some have read as standing for IBM - think about it) at a time when computers were still confined to the military-industrial complex (Figure 5.3). The revolution in computerization since the 1970s, however, has led to the emergence of an entirely new sub-genre: 'tech noir1. Building on Kubrick's 2001, tech noir began to emerge in the 1970s and 1980s. While reflecting on the implications of technology and manifesting a fascination with high-tech industry, computer technology, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering and virtual reality, it projected a dystopian, pessimistic view of the future. Films of this genre include THX 1138 (1970), Westworld (1973), Logan's Run (1976), 8/ade Runner, Terminator and T2. Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days (1995), using the device of VR, was a sophisticated self-reflexive study of voyeurism, spectatorship, the psychic dangers of vicarious entertainment and the nature of the cinematic medium itself. Other films which have examined the implications of VR are The Lawnmower Man (1992), eX/stenZ (1999) and The Matrix (1999).

THE

F U T U R E

In a famous essay in 1949, Andre Bazin characterized the advance of film technology as an inevitable and graceful progression towards greater screen realism. In doing so, however, he ignored the socio-economic context in which each development was grounded. Up to that point, the prime impetus behind each major technological innovation had been commercial rather than aesthetic, as enterprising studio heads recognized new technology as a means to maximize profits while simultaneously distinguishing their product from the competition.

Image Not Available

2001: a celebration of space technology (6FI Stills, Posters and Designs)

Figure 5.3

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Computer and digital technologies have advanced further than any other innovation considered in this chapter over the past 20 years. If they continue to progress at this rate, the age of complete 'realism', with CG images more realistic and more 'real' than the world we inhabit, may soon be achieved. Will this signal the end of traditional actors and settings? Casper (1993) featured the first CG talking lead figure while The Phantom Menace (1999) depicted another CG character in Jar Jar Sinks. While in Casper the character was merely a friendly ghost, the huge leaps in computer and digital technology suggest that it may be the beginning of a new trend. Eventually, special effects technology will be able to replace live actors with resurrected dead stars, while any setting will be creatable within a computer. Although current technologies may point to such developments in the future, will they manage to achieve the level of 'realism' that many demand?

Exercise 5.5 Take each of the six new technologies outlined in this chapter. Find out who introduced them; what was their reason for doing so? Who was responsible for their adoption? Was it the studios, individual film-makers or outside companies? Consider how far they were introduced for commercial or for aesthetic reasons.

SUMMARY Technological developments have affected film-making in two ways: filmmakers have utilized new technologies to make films, and, as a result, films increasingly reflect on the consequences of the use of such technology. The adoption of new technology was and is not a simple or uninterrupted linear progression. Developments in film technology were not always welcomed initially or used immediately upon their emergence. In many cases, the technology already existed some years {even decades) prior to its widespread adoption. The adoption of new processes closely mirrors their context. The main technological developments have been; camera mobility, sound, deep field photography, colour, projection technologies (widescreen, 3D, IMAX/OMNIMAX and digital} and computer and digital technologies.

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Christopher Goodwin, The digital explosion', The Sunday Times Culture (14 November 1999),

Michael Allen, Technology', in Pam Cook and Mieke Bernink (eds), The Cinema Book (2nd edn, London: BFI, 1999), pp. 45-64. Michael Atkinson, 'Cinema's secret history', The Guardian Guide (1 January 2000), pp. 4-9. Erik Barnouw, Documentary: A History of the Non-fiction Film (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974, reprinted 1993) (Chapter 1). Andre Bazin, The myth of total cinema', in What is Cinema? Vol. 1 (transl. Hugh Gray, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967). David Bennun, 'One day soon, all actors may be made this way', The Observer Magazine (12 December 1999), pp. 24-30. Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (London: Abacus, 1974).

pp. 55-7.

John Hill and Pamela Church Gibson (eds), The Oxford Guide to Film Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). Ira Konigsberg, The Complete Film Dictionary (2nd edn, London: Bloomsbury, 1997). Richard Maltby, Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995). James Monaco, How to Read a Film (3rd edn, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). David Parkinson, History of Film (London: Thames & Hudson, 1995). Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell, Film History (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994) (Chapter 1). Chris Webster, 'Film and technology', in Jill Nelmes

(ed.), An Introduction to Film Studies (2nd edn, FURTHER READING David A. Cook, A History of Narrative Film (3rd

London: Routledge, 1999), pp. 59-87.

FURTHER

VIEWING

edn, New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co., 1996).

The Making of The Mummy (Universal, 1999).

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Editing 104 Sound 110 Formalism and Realism 112 Film Techniques, Film Form and Narrative 114 Summary 116

T

here have been at least nine different TV and feature films made about the sinking of

the Titanic. These range from a silent version made within months of the disaster (Saved

from the Titanic, 1912), to the dryly titled A Night to Remember (1958), to S.O.S. Titanic (1979), to two films imaginatively called Titanic (1953 and 1997). The reason for mentioning these films is not to indicate the long history of the disaster movie genre but to highlight the fact that there is more than one way to tell a story in a film. The scripts for each of these films would of course have been very different, but essentially the story was the same: unsinkable ship makes maiden voyage, ship hits iceberg, ship sinks with a few passengers escaping. An understanding of how there can have been several versions of the Titanic story can be gained by studying the language of film'. All forms of communication have their own language. This book is communicating using the English language; music uses the written language of musical notation; photography communicates meanings by using a language that consists of concepts such as composition, framing, camera angle, shot size, lighting, contrasts between black and white, varying tones of colour; a radio programme may use the English language combined with an audio language consisting of practices such as fading volume up and down at appropriate times and mixing dialogue, music and sound effects together at various volume levels depending on what meaning is intended. Whatever the language being used, it consists of codes and conventions. Codes are particular methods for communicating meanings and conventions are the ways in which those codes are usually used. The English language uses particular words and grammatical structures. Film has its own language'. A range of techniques are available to a film-maker and those techniques are used to present a narrative through the medium of film, a narrative being a chain of events that are (usually) causally linked. The language of film is used (usually) to tell stories. A film's form is determined by the ways in which the story is told by the film, and is a combination of style and content. The content is structured by the narrative and style is

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shaped by the film techniques employed. The previous chapter covered film technology, which can be regarded as the 'tools of the trade'. Film techniques are the ways in which film technology is used; this chapter aims to identify what the language of film consists of and how film techniques produce meanings. The film production process can be divided into preproduction, production and postproduction. Preproduction includes scriptwriting - putting into words the types of narratives we have already looked at. This is followed by storyboards which visualize the script's narrative in a series of drawings that indicate the content of each shot. The production stage is when filming takes place, and the editing of filmed material is referred to as postproduction (see Chapter 2 on Production, Distribution and Exhibition). With regard to film techniques, we are interested in the specific practices that take place during production and postproduction. These techniques are covered by four terms: mise en scene, cinematography, editing and sound, each of which subsumes a range of subsidiary techniques.

M I S E

EN

S C E N E

This term originally developed in relation to theatre and literally translates as 'putting on the stage'. For our purposes it refers to 'placing within the shot'. A significant part of the meaning produced by a film comes from the visual content - this is to a large extent how the story is told. What a shot consists of is therefore crucially important. As James Monaco writes, '[b]ecause we read the shot, we are actively involved with it. The codes of mise en scene are the tools with which the filmmaker alters and modifies our reading of the shot' (1981, p. 148). The elements covered by mise en scene are: setting, props, costume, performance, lighting and colour. But in addition to choosing what is to be included in a shot, someone also has to decide how the elements are to be arranged. In other words, composition is also central to mise en scene. A director needs to make a number of decisions when deciding on shot content and arrangement. It needs to be recognized, however, that though the director is the person ultimately responsible for such matters, film conventions established over time can also play a large part in shaping mise en scene. Genre films tend to require particular elements, thus restricting the director's freedom (see Chapters 9 and 10 on Authorship and Genre). We also need to be aware that while we may try to determine the meanings produced by a shot, it is very likely that other spectators will interpret differently, especially when viewing from a different cultural perspective. In other words shots can be polysemic; they can have many meanings (see Chapters 3 and 12 on Cinema, Audiences and Society and on Meaning and Spectatorship).

Setting The setting provides the space in which all the other elements of mise en scene are situated. The setting, like props and costume, sets up expectations for the viewer and can instantly produce meanings; it signifies certain things. This is especially the case with

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genre films (see Chapter 10 for more detail). A shot of a relatively barren landscape with a small town consisting of wooden buildings including a saloon bar and sheriff's office will immediately indicate a western. Setting can be provided by filming on location, in a setting that actually exists, or by set design where the location is built for the specific purpose of the film. Typically, films use both studio sets and location filming, but many of the films from the Hollywood studio system era were filmed entirely within the studio. By comparison Tilal'(1989) was filmed entirely on location around a small village in Burkina Faso in Africa.

Props Props are the inanimate objects placed within the setting. They may remain static or may be used by the characters in the film. Props may simply serve to strengthen the effect of the setting by making the environment in which the action takes place visually more convincing. Los Angeles in 2019 as the setting for Blade Runner (1982) is made more convincing by the addition of hi-tech equipment, flying craft and futuristic gadgets. Props may also have a more active function. The phone that we see at the beginning of Scream (1996) is a prop that immediately plays a very active part in that it directly links the viewer and Casey to danger.

Costume Costumes help create an actor's character. They can place an actor within a particular historical period, indicate social class or lifestyle, and even determine what is possible and what is not. A space suit makes survival in space possible. A cowboy wearing a gun can survive a shoot-out. This example indicates that there can be an overlap between props and costume - at what point does the gun cease to be prop and become part of a costume? As with the previous two categories, costume can also help define the genre of

a film.

Performance What an actor does within a shot obviously contributes significantly to the meanings produced. The way an actor moves could indicate confidence, uncertainty, panic, friendliness. The actor's facial expressions may show fear, anger, happiness, sadness. In addition to these examples of body language or non-verbal communication, and to the clear differences in the speech patterns of different actors, a performance may have a particular effect because of what the actor has previously done in other films. Actors may be identified with certain types of characters, and actors with celebrity status can bring connotations to a film that emanate not only from previous films but also from their lives outside the films (see Chapter 11 on Stars). When we see Madonna in a film, is it possible to ignore her previous roles and what we know of her personal life?

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Lighting and colour Lighting illuminates the above-mentioned elements in a shot while itself also becoming an element within the shot. It has long been suggested that the human eye is drawn towards movement and towards the brightest area in a shot. A memorable shot from Citizen Kane (1941) illustrates the importance of movement and light. In the first flashback to Kane's early life, we see his mother and Thatcher in the foreground discussing his future. In the distant background we see Kane playing with his sledge. Despite the close proximity and important dialogue of Mrs Kane and Thatcher, we can't help but notice Kane in the distance because of the character's movement and because he is framed by a window against a bright backdrop. Lighting is usually thought of in terms of high key (balanced) lighting and low key (chiaroscuro) lighting. High key lighting is usually used when a relatively normal, everyday scenario is being filmed - we generally attempt to illuminate the situations we typically find ourselves in. Illumination exposes detail and provides visual information. However, in many films a mellow and subdued atmosphere is called for if suspense and fear of the unknown are required. The latter is often achieved by providing a lack of visual information and by hiding detail; this can be obtained through low key lighting, lighting from one source so as to create shadows and strong contrasts. The Blair Witch Project (1999) provides an extreme example of the use of low key lighting as a method for creating fear. During the night-time scenes the only source of light is a torch or video camera light in the darkness surrounding the characters. Only being able to see a small part of the forest emphasizes how little the characters can see. When high key lighting is desired in a film, lighting from at least two sources is used. In reality at least three lights are usually employed (see Figure 6.1): a key light as the main

A typical lighting set up

Figure 6.1

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source, a fill light to remove shadows, and a background light to create a sense of depth between the main subject and the background. A fourth light, a back light, may also be used, placed behind and facing towards them. It has the effect of highlighting the edges of a figure, usually the head. The key light is usually placed at approximately eye level; however, it can be placed above the actor as top lighting or below the actor as under lighting. Top lighting tends to enhance the actor's features whereas under lighting distorts the features. Colour has long been thought to affect mood; for instance, light green is believed to be a relaxing colour; red is a 'restless' colour. But as well as having a psychological effect, colours can also symbolize emotions and values, thus producing meanings in a text. White and black have respectively been used to represent good and evil, red can symbolize passion, romance and anger. Blue can symbolize detachment, alienation and a lack of emotion: futuristic, dystopian films such as Blade Runner and RoboCop (1987) use blue light to a significant degree.

Composition Having selected all the above elements for inclusion in a shot, the director then has to place them as required. The arrangement of elements within a shot is known as composition. Symmetrical composition places elements of a similar shape and size in similar positions on either side of the shot. Asymmetrical composition achieves an overall balance by having each side of the shot generally equate with the other in terms of areas of visual significance. A balanced composition is usually regarded as visually pleasing as opposed to unbalanced composition, which may make us feel uneasy or uncomfortable. Unbalanced composition can, however, be a useful creative device. A fascinating shot for analysing mise en scene comes from Psycho (1960) during the scene when Marion and Norman converse in his room. The setting is a small room cluttered with props such as a table, chairs, pictures, ornaments, candlesticks, a chest of drawers, curtains and a table lamp, all of which are typical everyday items; yet combined with the setting they create a somewhat claustrophobic atmosphere. The props that stand out as unusual are several stuffed birds. The lighting is slightly low key but the only strong shadows are cast by the stuffed birds illuminated by under lighting. Interestingly, Hitchcock chose to film Psycho in black and white even though colour film had been available for 25 years. Norman's costume does not appear to be of particular significance, but his performance is full of meaning. The mid-shot of just Norman concentrates our attention upon his performance. It is a low angle shot which gives us an unusual view of Norman, distorting his appearance. He is talking animatedly, using his hands, and has an intense, obsessed look on his face. Norman does not appear normal. Our doubts about his sanity are enhanced by the predatory birds on the wall, which indicate his obsession with taxidermy and symbolize his potential for preying on Marion. The composition of the shot is also unsettling in that while Norman is looking left towards Marion, his face is placed on the left-hand side of the screen. This is unbalanced composition because there is nothing on the right-hand side of the shot to balance out the left. It also introduces tension because Norman has no 'looking space' within the shot. Normally a character looking left would be positioned to the right to create space for him/her

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Mise en scene and shot composition in Some Like it Hot (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs) to look through. When Norman is placed up against the left side of the shot we have no idea if something is placed directly in front of him or not. It creates uncertainty because we are visually uninformed. All in all this shot shows highly effective mise en scene. The still from Some Like it Hot (Figure 6.2) contains a wealth of information that we identify through a reading of the shot's mise en scene. Marilyn Monroe, as Sugar, is talking to Tony Curtis (Joe) on the beach. Joe is wearing a ship's captain's uniform and sits formally in a sheltered chair, separating himself somewhat from the informally dressed occupants of the beach. He has an appearance of authority and status, albeit not a very convincing one. Sugar is sitting in close proximity to Joe and gazes up at him with a look of admiration and interest; Joe avoids her gaze and seems to be trying hard not to show any interest in her. The brightly lit beach carries connotations of leisure, pleasure and playfulness, as epitomized by Sugar, while Joe's appearance and his position above Sugar emphasize his comical attempt at cool detachment and composure.

Exercise 6.1 Describe the ways in which the mise en scene contributes to the meaning of one sequence in a horror film of your choice.

C I N E M A T O G R A P H Y If mise en scene refers to what is placed in front of the camera, then cinematography is concerned with recording the elements within the shot. While photography is the recording of a

Figure 6.2

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static image, cinematography is the recording of a moving image. In order to obtain the desired images, the cinematographer must attend to two areas: control of lighting and operation of the camera. The images consist of reflected light and the camera records light. Indeed, in Britain a cinematographer (the person responsible for lighting and camerawork) is sometimes known as the lighting cameraperson or as the director of photography.

Framing A key ingredient of cinematography is framing. This refers to the edges of a shot, in that framing determines both what is included and what is excluded. There is indeed a close link between framing, composition and mise en scene. Mise en scene refers to what is to be filmed and how it is arranged and therefore in effect defines what the framing will be; however, strictly speaking, the framing is only realized when the shot is filmed through the camera lens. To refer back to the Norman and Marion conversation scene from Psycho, Hitchcock could have chosen to widen the framing so that we could see both Marion and Norman. However, this would have entailed including more height in the shot, which would perhaps have meant meaningless space and detail. The tighter framing chosen by Hitchcock means we get a mid-shot of Norman's reactions as he speaks to Marion. Hitchcock nevertheless briefly gives us a long shot of both Marion and Norman at the beginning and end of the scene to provide us with a sense of the spatial relationship between them.

Shot Size Shot size in turn is determined by the framing. There are many possible choices of shot but we can think in terms of five basic shot sizes with intermediate shots in between (see Figure 6.3). Shot sizes can be closely tied to narrative development, notably to the progression of scenes. Typically a film, and often a scene, will begin with an extreme long shot (ELS). Just as narratives tend to begin slowly in order to acquaint us with characters and locations, so films visually use an ELS (sometimes called an establishing shot) to place things in context. An ELS allows us to see a subject in relation to her/his surroundings. Blade Runner begins with several ELSs which gradually introduce us to Los Angeles in the twenty-first century, followed by the introduction of themes and characters. A film can begin with an extreme close up (ECU); this could be used to make us inquisitive, or it may simply be an impressive shot because of its content, but more often than not it won't make much sense. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1967) famously begins with an ELS which is immediately transformed into an ECU as a character walks into shot and looks straight to camera. The shot is interesting and intriguing while also being disconcerting; however, it makes no obvious sense in the context of the film. It does not enable us to get to know the character in greater depth, which would arguably be a pointless exercise anyway as he dies a couple of minutes later. The choice of shot seems to be more to do with style and experimentation than with illustrating the narrative. Furthermore, having a character look straight to camera is usually identified as a technique of alternative cinema (see p. 146 below).

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The five main shot sizes

A first close up is usually found some minutes into a film when we are already accustomed to characters and locations. Typically a CU will concentrate our attention on an important detail to ensure that the desired meaning is communicated, or else a CU will be used as a reaction shot to show someone's response to an incident. It is common to find a CU of someone's face when their expression tells us something or a CU on an object that is to have a crucial function in the film. Scream in fact begins with a potentially confusing shot, a CU of a telephone; however, we do hear a phone ringing and we don't have to wait long for it to take on relevance. The camera tracks back to show Casey picking up the phone. These introductory shots are also soon followed by an exterior ELS (albeit a threatening one) of Casey's home to provide us with context.

Length of Take If shot sizes tend to be large at the beginnings of films and scenes, an equivalent characteristic can be noted for shot duration or the length of a take. The average duration of a shot is approximately 6 seconds, but introductory shots are often at least twice this length. Again, the pace tends to be slower in order to allow the viewer more time to become acquainted with characters and locations. If we look at 2 minutes from near the beginning of Cinema Paradiso (1989) we find only five shots. Within this time we are introduced to the main character Salvatore and his wife, who informs him that an old friend, Alfredo, has died. This leads into a flashback to his youth which goes on to provide his childhood memories, which constitute the bulk of the film. If we then look at a 2-minute period from the climactic section of the film, when Salvatore saves Alfredo from a fire in the village cinema, we find 52 shots. The narrative a//ows short takes because we know the location and characters well, and the narrative also requires short takes because the

Figure 6.3

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scene involves action and panic. Imagine the effect if we reversed the shot durations: 52 shots in 2 minutes to introduce characters and only five shots to cover 2 minutes of fastmoving action. There can be other reasons for long takes in a film. Orson Welles famously, and Jean-Luc Godard infamously, have used long takes. In Godard's Weekend (1968) one shot lasts 8 minutes and gradually reveals to us a long line of cars in a traffic jam. As well as also helping to ensure that the film is 'alternative', which was no doubt part of the director's intention, the shot also helps make one of Godard's points about cultural life and consumerism in 1960s France - the point being that while the trend of going away for the weekend grew, it increasingly resulted in people spending the weekend in traffic jams. Welles began Touch of Evil (1953) with a shot that lasts over 3 minutes. It begins with a close up of a bomb being planted in a car. The camera then rises to give us a bird's eye view of the situation, including the car driving off. The camera tracks to catch up with the car, then drops down to enable us to hear a banal conversation between a border guard, a woman and a man. This technique builds suspense as we are expecting an explosion, which soon follows and brings the shot to a close. Being the exception to the rule begs the question: why use a long take instead of editing together several shots covering the same action? It could be argued that in this instance we are given an overview of what is happening in adjacent locations simultaneously as a way of providing us with the bigger picture. However, if this is the intention, then why is the technique not used more frequently? Alternatively it could be argued that such a shot was motivated more by style than by the requirements of the narrative, which is not necessarily undesirable. For now it is sufficient to note that it is a technically impressive shot with incredibly complex timing which has certainly gained a place within the study of film. As Richard Maltby notes: [V]isual style is not usually so conspicuous an element in a movie's performance. In Touch of Evil we notice the emphasis on the camera as an active agent in the manipulation of the audience precisely because we are used to the more anonymous and self-effacing strategies associated with Hollywood camerawork. Long takes or extravagant camera gestures stress the existence of an instrumental, manipulative presence. (Maltby, 1995, p. 246) Having suggested that the long take at the beginning of Touch of Evil may be more to do with style than with content, it would be wrong to assume that this is always the case. T/7a/' regularly uses takes throughout the film of almost a minute's duration. However, the length of the takes is not particularly noticeable because they seem to suit the narrative. The film is set in a small, rural community in Africa. The pace of life is slow and the story is not actiondriven. The cause-effect processes within the film develop gradually. The narrative requires long takes. What is also noticeable is the lack of camera movement in many of these long takes. The camera allows the narrative to unfold in front of it without trying to add meaning through movement. A further reason for these long takes, which often tend to be long shots too, is the location of the film. The village is surrounded by wide open spaces; there is little to interrupt the vast horizons. Director Idrissa Ouedraogo allows events to unravel against

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this backdrop of uninterrupted space with a minimum of interference, whereas within the more enclosed confines of most film locations, there is a need to switch to different camera angles and shot sizes, if only to cover all the action. Hitchcock took the long take one stage further in Rope (1948). A reel of film normally lasts no longer than 10 minutes and Hitchcock filmed so that each reel was one complete take. What is more, he began and ended each reel with someone or something passing close to the camera lens so that the screen went dark. At these points the reels were edited together so that the whole film appears to be one long continuous take lasting 80 minutes. The camera continually tracks around the apartment in which the film takes place, following characters and actions to give a variety of perspectives.

Camera Movement As has already been mentioned in the above example, long takes usually involve camera movement of some sort, as it would be difficult to justify a long take in which the camera was static unless the action within the frame was sufficiently interesting to be able to hold our attention (one of the characteristics of early films was long takes with static cameras; see Chapter 7 on Early Cinema and Film Form). There are four main types of camera movement: in a pan shot the camera rotates horizontally around a fixed position (often used to follow movement); a tilt shot moves the camera vertically around a fixed position (typically used to indicate height); a tracking shot involves a horizontal movement of the camera in which it changes location, usually fitted to a device called a dolly that runs on rails; a crane shot enables the camera to be raised and lowered and moved horizontally. In addition to the above, it is also possible to use a hand-held camera or to utilize the zoom facility, which strictly speaking is not a camera movement but movement within the camera - repositioning the lens in relation to the aperture. The problem with hand-held camerawork is that the shots can be unsteady, but the use of stead/cam equipment can overcome this problem and provide smooth moving shots (see Chapter 5 on Film Technology). However, films like The Blair Witch Project and those of Dogme 95 achieve their impact partly through unsteady hand-held camerawork. The viewer is linked more directly to the person filming, first because we usually see exactly what s/he sees via the camera but also because we are reminded of their presence through the shaky camerawork.

Crane shot In Martin Scorsese's opinion, one of the greatest shots of all time is a crane shot lasting more than a minute, used by Hitchcock in Young and Innocent (1937). In this film a murder has been committed and those investigating believe the culprit is in a ballroom; the only clue they have is that the murderer has a facial twitch. Hitchcock gives the viewer information the investigators don't have with a crane shot that begins with an ELS of the ballroom, then moves over the heads of the dancers towards the band on the stage, ending with an ECU of the drummer's face, which begins to twitch.

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Tracking shot The penultimate shot from Psycho (see Figure 6.4) contains a good example of a tracking shot, combined with unusual framing. Norman Bates has been caught and is being held in a cell. We see a long shot of Norman, but the framing produces an awkward composition in which he is placed to the left of the shot and his lower legs are out of the frame. It is an uncomfortable shot visually. The long shot emphasizes Norman's isolation in a bare, white room. The camera gradually tracks in to a close up of Norman's face in the centre of the screen, at which point he slowly looks up from under his eyebrows with an evil grin. At the beginning of the shot we feel safely distanced from Norman, but by the end of the tracking shot we are close to him and feel threatened.

Zoom and tracking shots It will immediately be realized that a tracking shot is one way of bringing a subject closer by physically moving the camera nearer. However, another technique which produces a similar effect is that of a zoom, the main difference being that the camera does not physically move closer but the lens alters its focal length. But while both techniques bring the subject closer, they differ in how they deal with perspective concerning the relationship between what is in the middle of the shot and what is at the edges of the frame. Hitchcock experimented creatively with this difference in Vert/go (1958). When Scottie, who suffers from vertigo, is running up the tower in the final scene, he twice looks down the centre of the stairwell. The film cuts to his point of view and brilliantly imitates the experience of light-headedness and nausea through fear of heights by distorting the perspective between the edge of the frame and the centre of the shot. Hitchcock achieved this through a reverse-track zoom. As the camera zooms back from the bottom of the stairwell, it also tracks in to ensure that the edges of the frame stay exactly the same. The effect is to have the centre of the shot stretching away from the edges of the shot. Similar techniques have since been used by Scorsese himself and by Mathieu Kassovitz (La Haine, 1995) among others.

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Figure 6.4

Psycho: the unbalanced Norman Bates (Paramount, courtesy Kobal)

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Camera Angle Camera angle provides another means of producing different meanings. Normally the camera angle is horizontal and at eye level: we usually communicate with each other at something approximating eye level and subconsciously expect to relate to the characters in films in the same way. However, high and low camera angles can be used too. A high camera angle can be useful for providing a general overview of a situation. A low camera angle may be required because of the position of a character in relation to something else. High and low camera angles can also be used to represent a power relationship between characters in a film or to emphasize the subordinate or dominant nature of a character to the audience. An example of this technique is found in Citizen Kane when Kane is arguing with Susan. As Kane is talking, a low angle is used; he towers over Susan and over us. When Susan is talking, a high angle is used; we look down on her. Kane's power is symbolized further in this scene when his shadow gradually eclipses Susan. However, the meanings behind high and low camera angles remain linked to the narrative context. An angled shot can also provide a distorted view. In Psycho, during Norman's conversation with Marion Crane, at one point a low angle shot is used of Norman which has the effect of exaggerating his 'strangeness'. We already suspect he is odd from the things he says and from his obsessive, unpredictable character. At another point in the conversation Marion stands up and a high angle shot of Norman is used. This has the effect of reducing him to looking like a small child where before he was threatening, thus emphasizing his split personality.

Depth of Field One last aspect of cinematography remains, this being depth of field. Depending on shutter speed, aperture and the amount of light available, a camera can focus on just a small part of what is in the frame or on the whole scene. Focusing on only part of a frame is known as shallow focus and is often used as a device for encouraging the audience to concentrate on a particular part of the scene. Conversely, seeing everything in focus, from foreground to background, is known as deep field photography or deep focus. This technique has probably never been shown more clearly than in the scene referred to earlier (p. 95) from Citizen Kane when Kane as a small boy is seen playing in the snow in the background while his mother and Thatcher talk in the foreground. The shot begins as an exterior shot of Kane. The camera then moves back through a window and past Kane's mother and Thatcher. The camera continues to track back through a doorway, at which point Mrs Kane and Thatcher move to sit in front of the camera (Figure 6.5). The shot was arranged and filmed by cinematographer Gregg Toland so as to be in focus from foreground to background. It is difficult not to suspect that the shot was contrived to illustrate deep focus; as with other techniques in Citizen Kane, such as use of low key lighting and extreme camera angles, the deep focus here is hardly subtle and can leave the viewer remembering the style of the film rather than its narrative. This is a criticism Robert McKee makes of Welles, claiming that Citizen Kane is all style and no content; in effect, style is the film's content, our eye stops at the screen and does not get through to the narrative. For McKee style should provide access to the narrative and strengthen it.

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Figure 6.5

Citizen Kane and deep focus: Kane's parents decide his future as he plays in the background (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

Exercise 6.2 Compare and contrast the camerawork in the opening and closing scenes of a nonHollywood film of your choice.

E D I T I N G After the completion of filming, the final stage is editing, the selection and piecing together of shots to form the completed film. Just as a range of choices exists for the cinematographer when manipulating light and using a camera, so editing offers many possibilities.

Continuity Editing One of the key principles is continuity editing. Most films, in one way or another, attempt to have us fully engrossed in what we see. The intention is that we escape into the film for the duration of the screening. The concept of 'willing suspension of disbelief sums up the experience of much film-going. We know that what we see on the screen isn't real, in other words, we disbelieve it, but in order to fully engage with the film we willingly suspend that disbelief - we happily ignore our doubts about the authenticity of what we see. We allow ourselves to enter the world (the diegesis) of the film. In order that we can experience films in this way, it is important that we are not reminded that we are watching a film and that we are not confused by an incomprehensible presentation of events in the narrative. Annette Kuhn writes: 'Continuity editing establishes spatial and

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temporal relationships between shots in such a way as to permit the spectator to "read" a film without any conscious effort, precisely because the editing is "invisible".' (in Cook and Bernink, 1999, p. 40) For this to be possible, it is essential that the shots flow smoothly from one to another and that our attention is not drawn to the edit points. In effect, the shots support each other. One shot logically leads to the next and to a degree we expect the next shot: there is a continuity between one shot and the next. A number of techniques help make this possible.

Movement and Speed of Editing To ensure such 'transparent' editing, it is necessary that the locations, props, actors and movement in one shot are consistent with what has gone before. The speed at which something happens and the space within which it occurs should be consistent across the relevant shots. In effect, continuity editing supports the meanings produced by the audio/visual interpretations of the narrative. This principle can be illustrated by reference to a scene mentioned previously, the climactic moment in Cinema Paradiso when Salvatore rescues Alfredo from the fire that has started in the cinema projection room. The pace of editing is fast, people are panicking, events move with speed. Within this scene there is a consistency with regard to time and movement and similarly there is a consistency in the locations and space within which the events unravel. Failure to maintain this consistency would interrupt our involvement in the film and draw attention to the artificial and constructed nature of film.

Shot Size and Editing This particular scene also serves to illustrate another common principle behind editing, the use of a variety of shot sizes. On one level a variety of shot sizes helps maintain our interest visually through avoiding repetition, but it also serves another function. We have already noted the various meanings that shot sizes can produce, and through editing a logical progression is created out of shot size. In the scene from the above example we are provided with an extreme long shot of the village and cinema to provide context. The shots are then edited together to eventually take us onto a more personal level as we see Salvatore in extreme close up battling his way through the crowds to Alfredo.

Shot/Reverse Shot Editing Editing also helps to clarify situations by joining together shots from different angles to provide us with different perspectives, thereby creating a fuller understanding. This is common during conversations where a shot/reverse shot edit is frequently used. The shots themselves are often 'over the shoulder shots' in which we see part of the back of one person's head and shoulders and the front of the other person talking to them. The editing provides an understanding of the spatial relationship between the characters while also giving information on movement and facial expression.

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Eye-line Match Conversations, and for that matter any interaction between characters, will usually also require an eye-line match in order to maintain continuity between edits. If character A is in a chair looking up at character B who is standing, when we cut to a close up of character A s/he should still be looking up, even if character B is out of shot - and vice versa for a close up of character B. In other words, the direction of a character's gaze needs to be matched to the position of the object they are looking at.

Match on A c t i o n Another form of edit that provides additional information about an event is a match on act/on. Here the edit brings together two shots from different angles or shot sizes of the same action being completed. Again, this gives us a slightly different perspective on an action and can often provide us with more detail through the use of a close up. We see a hand raise a gun - next we see an extreme close up of a finger pulling the trigger.

Cutaway Shots A cutaway shot may be edited into a scene. This type of shot is not directly related to the action taking place but it has an indirect link. We may see two people having a conversation in an apartment and, while we still hear their dialogue, for several seconds we may see a shot of the exterior of the apartment before returning to the conversation. The shot cuts away from the action but still retains some connection to the scene.

Cross-cutting Cross-cutting is an invaluable editing technique and is commonly used for building suspense. It consists of editing together shots of events in different locations which are expected eventually to coincide with each other. We shall look in Chapter 10 at the way omniscient narration can build suspense by providing an overview of different areas of action, and cross-cutting is the realization of such a narrative approach. At the end of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) we are aware that Tom is desperately trying to get rid of two shotguns which he believes are incriminating evidence. However, we then cut to a pub where his associates have just learned that the guns are worth a fortune. Suspense is built through editing between Tom trying to dump the guns into the Thames and his associates desperately trying to phone him to stop him getting rid of the guns. In one respect, cross-cutting breaks the film's continuity by suddenly jumping to another scene; however, the close linking together of the two scenes ensures coherence.

The 180 D e g r e e Rule There are a couple of important 'rules' associated with editing. The 180 degree rule specifies that the camera should not have 'crossed the line' of action when two shots are edited

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together. This is particularly important during a scene where two characters are interacting with each other in some way. We will have subconsciously noted that one character is on one side of the screen while the other is on the opposite side. The line of action is an imaginary line passing through the two characters. If the camera were to be placed on the other side of the action in the next shot, then the position of the characters would be reversed (see Figure 6.6). It could take the viewer a second or two to realize what had happened and this might interrupt involvement in the film. In reality audiences are fairly adept at quickly ascertaining what has happened in such an edit; indeed, it is increasingly common to see the line crossed. In the cafe scene when Jimmy and Henry meet towards the end of GoodFellas (1990), the camera crosses the line but our involvement is not dramatically disrupted. The two ways of safely crossing the line are to either track across the line in one continuous shot or have an intermediate shot on the line in between the two shots.

The 180 degree rule

The 30 Degree Rule The 30 degree rule (Figure 6.7) indicates that if two shots of the same location or action are edited together, then either the camera should move position by at least 30 degrees or the shot size should radically change. If this does not happen then the effect is a jump cut. The elements within the shot appear to jump slightly, producing a disconcerting effect on the viewer.

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Alternatives to Cutting Other techniques can be used at the editing stage to create a seamless unity for the film, whose narrative will usually contain many scenes within the overall story. If scenes were edited straight up against each other, then the transition from one to another could be confusing. The usual convention is to use a fade to black and a fade from black to end and begin a scene. Fades are introduced during the editing stage. Dissolves and wipes are often used too: one shot gradually gives way to another to indicate a transition, sometimes from one scene to another, but more often than not this is used to indicate the passing of time.

Discontinu ity Editing If most editing can be described as continuity editing, then it is equally true that a minority of films use discontinuity editing. As the name implies, there is no smooth flow to the shots that are edited together; there is a disruption between one shot and the next. However, discontinuity editing can be used to good effect. If continuity editing principally supports the meanings residing within the shots that represent the narrative, then discontinuity editing can be regarded as producing meanings from the ways in which the shots are linked together. The shots are not necessarily unified; rather, meaning comes from the way in which the shots interact.

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Montage The best known example of discontinuity editing is montage, which was much used by Eisenstein, most famously in Battleship Potemkin (1925) in the Odessa Steps sequence (see also Chapter 14). Here the shots that are edited together do not flow smoothly; instead they clash: they conflict with each other. The sequence switches, in a spatially disorientating way, between views of the Tsar's advancing troops and views of the fleeing citizens. The troops are armed, menacing and inhuman; the citizens are unarmed, vulnerable and all too human. The juxtaposition of meanings between the shots results in new meanings, produced by the viewer on seeing the montage of shots that are pieced together. It is also possible for the pace of editing to create a rhythm which itself produces meaning. In the shower scene in Psycho there is no logical progression to the way in which the stabbing of Marion is visually presented; it is a montage of shots. The shots are short and are filmed from a variety of angles - a rhythm is set up by the editing which emphasizes the frenetic rhythm of the stabbings. The knife comes from different directions and these shots are intercut with short shots of Marion struggling. The effect of the sequence is to create a feeling of confusion, madness, panic. No doubt precisely what Hitchcock wanted.

Graphic Mateh Another editing technique that can break continuity is that of linking shots containing similar visual content. The shower scene in Psycho ends with a graphic match when the camera zooms in to a close up on water swirling down the circular drain in the shower and then dissolves to a revolving close up of Marion Crane's eye. Shot size, movement, shapes and composition are matched.

S y m b o l i c I n s e r t Edit As the name implies, this term describes a shot which is edited in between other shots and which indirectly represents something else. Godard used this device in Weekend. Rather than show the murder of Corrine's mother, Godard inserts a shot of a dead rabbit covered in blood. The edit breaks the film's continuity as it makes no obvious sense in the context of the accompanying shots - it comes from outside the world of the film. However, throughout the film the editing frequently lacks continuity, and time and space often lack coherence from scene to scene.

Freeze Frame One final technique remains to be mentioned that is achieved at the editing stage. The freeze frame for obvious reasons creates a discontinuity - the moving image suddenly comes to a standstill. It is not a common technique but can be a useful device. In Jules et Jim (Truffaut, 1962), at one point Catherine is pretending to pose like a model. Truffaut momentarily freeze frames the shots of her poses to create the impression of a photograph. At the beginning of Trainspotting (1996) several freeze frames of the characters are used, with a

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voice-over providing information about the characters. A freeze frame can usefully give us time to analyse an image. Finally, and less problematically, since Truffaut's own The 400 Blows (Les 400 coups, 1959), a freeze frame can often be used to signal the end of a film.

Exercise 6.3 Analyse the editing in the climactic scenes of a science fiction film and a romance, and identify the similarities and differences in technique.

S O U N D Sound is of vital importance at both the filming and editing stages. Film is both a visual and an aural medium. The most important sound within a film is likely to be the dialogue, plus any accompanying sounds such as those caused by movement of characters or objects. These sounds will give us a lot of information, helping us to follow the story and complementing the images we see on the screen. However, it is likely that other sounds will be added to the film to further emphasize the meanings it is hoped the film will communicate.

Diegetic and Non-diegetic Sound Sound originating from the world within the film is known as 'diegetic'. Typically this consists of dialogue and sounds emanating from action within the shot, including background or ambient noise. Non-diegetic sound has a source outside the film's narrative. Most obviously this includes incidental music but it also refers to voice-overs. Non-diegetic sound is added at the editing stage and can hold great importance for the edited images. However, diegetic sound may also be modified or added during editing, for instance, the sound of a car crash. Two films whose narratives revolve around suspect manipulation of sound are The Conversation (Coppola, 1974) and Blow Out (De Palma, 1981). Sound can also be used to help hold together edited shots, which are rarely continuous; they often hide an ellipsis, a period of time which is omitted from the film. It is, for instance, unlikely that a film would cover in real time someone leaving a house to get into a car. Parts of this action would be excluded, and continuous sound can help provide a smooth join between the discontinuous shots.

Sound Effects The use of sound effects is common in films; such effects usually function as diegetic sound in that they appear to originate from elements within the film, even though such sound is often added during post-production. Sounds can be regarded as signs that produce meanings, just as visual elements are signs. The sound of a creaking door or the gradual approach of footsteps can create suspense and fear of the unknown just as can low key

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lighting. We wonder what is opening the door and fear its entry into the space of the film. We wonder whose footsteps we hear and what their arrival will bring.

Ambient Sound Ambient sound is also recorded at the end of filming in a location: it is what is heard when there is no dialogue or movement. This background sound can be added at the editing stage if it is judged that there is too much silence. A lack of sound can be just as noticeable as the presence of sound, and it is rare that we experience complete silence in a film.

Music A soundtrack is usually essential for a film; it creates mood and strengthens meaning. A classic example of incidental music supplementing visual content while also creating meaning is the series of short, sharp, high pitched screeching sounds produced from a violin in Psycho. It is not an easy sound to listen to. It is of high volume and high frequency, and is discordant: it puts us on edge and makes us feel uncomfortable. When the film begins with this sound, accompanying the title sequence of light and dark lines slicing the screen horizontally, expectations are immediately set up. Famously the music returns during the shower scene when Marion Crane is repeatedly stabbed. The music itself is sharp and stabbing and provides at least as much meaning as the shots it accompanies. To grasp the importance of music, one may try imagining the Psycho music being replaced with the theme tune from Star Wars. What effect would it have upon the visual content? It would seem inappropriate and would undermine the importance of what we see on the screen. The soundtrack for Trainspotting is atypical. A film's music is usually not noticed; it is incidental, and supports the narrative by reinforcing the intended meaning. We are often not conscious of its presence. Trainspotting places the music up front alongside the visual content. The soundtrack consists of popular contemporary tracks from the mid-1990s and is no doubt as much to do with targeting an audience as with supporting the narrative. Not all music in Trainspotting is non-diegetic, however. There are a couple of scenes set in clubs and the accompanying music is diegetic because it originates from the club locations. However, not all films have an accompanying music soundtrack. The Blair Witch Project contains no music to supplement its narrative and for good reason. The film is supposed to be documentary footage, roughly edited together having been found several years later, which records 'real' events. The addition of music, even if appropriate to the building of suspense, would have ruined the basis of the narrative, that the events witnessed really happened. We become so accustomed to the lack of non-diegetic music that the addition of abstract sounds during the end credits may seem odd.

Voice-overs Voice-overs are added at the postproduction stage and are typically used to anchor the meanings in a film and give guidance to the audience. Trainspotting and Lock, Stock and

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Two Smoking Barrels both use voice-overs at the beginning, the former to set the scene and raise issues for the film to deal with, the latter to introduce characters and indicate their possible roles in the film. Films such as Blade Runner and Double Indemnity (1944) use voice-overs throughout as a way of supplementing what we learn from the images and dialogue while also providing insights into the main characters.

Parallel and Contrapuntal Sound Usually the sound we hear in a film directly accompanies what we see on the screen; it is appropriate sound, it is the sound we expect. The music in Trainspotting matches what we see in the film and seems relevant to the characters, their lifestyles, and the pace of the film. In other words, the music works in parallel with the visual content of the film. However, this is not always the case. In both A Clockwork Orange (1971) and GoodFellas, horrific acts of violence are accompanied by bright, happy, energetic music rather than the sinister, threatening incidental music we may expect. This is an example of contrapuntal sound. The sound works against what we see on the screen. In these particular cases the effect is to emphasize the characters' casual, sometimes gleeful attitude to violence while also shocking the viewer.

Sound Bridges The editing of a film normally ensures that sounds coincide with the shots they relate to. However, postproduction audio mixing can place a sound earlier or later than the image to which it relates. This device is used fairly often for linking two scenes together. We may be watching the end of one scene when we hear dialogue from the scene which we cut to a moment later. Similarly, we may cut to a shot from the next scene while still hearing dialogue from the preceding scene. In both cases we are prepared for the scene to follow. This technique, often used as a variation on the convention of a fade to indicate the ending or beginning of a scene, is known as a sound bridge. It can help smooth over the edit point between two shots.

F O R M A L I S M

A N D

R E A L I S M

Two perspectives that are closely linked to the topic of film form are formalism and realism. Each has a particular view of what film should be for and how it can achieve its purpose. Formalism began to take on coherence in the 1920s in the Soviet Union, and its two key theorists were Sergei Eisenstein and Rudolf Arnheim. The theorization behind realism gained strength during the 1930s and its later proponents included Andre Bazin and Siegfried Kracauer. Although the debate between these perspectives may not have really taken off until the 1930s, there has always been a division in the ways in which the medium has been used. Between 1895 and 1901 the films of the Lumiere brothers aimed to record scenes from everyday life, while Melies used film as an expressive medium that centred on the importance of mise en scene in the construction of fantasy.

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Formalism emphasizes film's potential as an expressive medium. The available film techniques are of central importance - use of camera, lighting, editing. For the formalists, film should not merely record and imitate what is before the camera, but should produce its own meanings. Primary importance is attached to the filmic process, and it is suggested that film can never fully record reality anyway, if only because it is two-dimensional compared to reality's three dimensions. We have already looked at examples which can be described as formalist in the work of Eisenstein and Hitchcock. The Odessa Steps sequence from Battleship Potemkin consists of montage editing. Eisenstein was not content to merely show us what happened on the Odessa Steps; instead he expressed the meaning of the events through the choice of shot content and the way he edited the shots together. He produced meaning from a dialectical process between shots, by producing associations from shots, by using symbolic shots, all of which requires the viewer to make sense of what is seen, to think through a sequence. Eisenstein wrote of the editing of shots: '[t]he juxtaposition of these partial details in a given montage construction calls to life and forces into the light that general quality in which each detail has participated and which binds together all the details into a whole' (Eisenstein, 1942, p. 11). The shower scene from Psycho uses a formalist strategy of montage editing. The scene is not shot and edited in a continuous, linear style. The meaning and effect come both from the content of shots, namely a knife flashing across the screen at different angles towards Marion Crane, and from the editing of the shots, which produces a series of short shots that juxtapose the knife and Marion with their different directions of movement. Further examples of formalism are to be found in German Expressionism. Films such as The Cab/net of Dr Caligari (1920) are non-realist: the expressive nature and meaning of these films tend to rely upon the mise en scene, on the selection and arrangement of elements within shots. It will be noticed that the formalist approach to film-making necessarily emphasizes the importance of the director as someone who intervenes in the film-making process. In other words, a film is a vehicle for personal expression. Realism, by contrast, emphasizes film as a medium for directly recording what the camera 'sees'. Film techniques are important, but not for producing meaning within the film. The function of the camera is to record what is in front of it and to allow the content to speak for itself for the audience to draw their own conclusions. Bazin believed realist cinema was a more democratic form of film in that it did not manipulate the audience. The use of deep focus allows the audience to clearly perceive a number of elements within a shot instead of being guided towards a particular element. The use of long takes reduces the need for intervention by the director in the construction of the film. Less editing means less fragmentation of time and space. Film is seen as having the potential to reveal the world to audiences. 'For the first time, between the originating object and its reproduction there intervenes only the instrumentality of a nonliving agent. For the first time, the image of the world is formed automatically, without the creative intervention of man' (Bazin, 1967, p. 13). This Bazin quote comes from an essay entitled 'Ontology of the Photographic Image'. Ontology is central to any kind of realism, concerned as it is with the 'reality status' of objects and representations. Is a documentary more 'real' than a Hollywood film? Can any

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film be 'real? What does 'real' mean'? These are not idle questions: from personal experience we can affirm that many people (in response to a direct question) think of soap operas as 'real'. The ontological question is in turn linked to the matter of epistemology, which is about the meaning of 'knowledge'. How do we know what we know? Again, this question is much deeper and more far-reaching than it may appear: do I 'know' something because I have experienced it (empirically), because I have sensory (phenomenological)

information

about it, or because I believe what I have read or heard... or seen in a film or on TV?

Exercise 6.4 Consider the Gulf War. How do you know what you know about it? What are the sources of your knowledge? How confident are you that your knowledge is 'true'?

The use of film as a means of addressing ('real') social issues gained impetus in the 1930s with the growth of documentary film-making and the 'realist' films of Jean Renoir. Renoir's films tended to deal with social issues and used deep focus and long takes as a way of reducing directorial intervention. A film such as La Grande Illusion (1937) typifies Renoir's concern with themes of class inequalities and the futility of war. John Grierson, who spearheaded British documentary film-making, was similarly concerned with revealing social issues in 1930s Britain. However, it must be noted that the use of realist film techniques does not necessarily imply social issue films. Orson Welles, for example, is well known for his use of long takes and deep focus but produced films as entertainment, and while Citizen Kane contains realist techniques, it also extensively uses formalist devices such as expressive lighting and unusual camera angles. The concept of realism remains problematic. If long takes result in greater realism, then presumably one continuous take with no editing would be the ideal, yet this has rarely been tried. Even with such an approach, there is still directorial intervention in terms of decisions about when the take begins and ends. Similarly, although deep focus means the audience is not guided towards a particular element, choices are still made about what is in the shot and how it is composed. Add to this the fact that realist films often make very effective use of music, as in the case of Bicycle Thieves (1948), and the case for a realist aesthetic looks untenable. This is not to say that there is no place for realist techniques in film, but it does indicate the limits that exist for realism. What audiences regard as 'realistic' also changes over time and varies from culture to culture.

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T E C H N I Q U E S ,

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N A R R A T I V E The question was posed at the beginning of this chapter of how several film versions of the Titanic story could have been made, each different from the others. Having looked at the language of film and how film techniques are combined with narratives, we are now in a

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position to look again at this question. We have noted that form is the result of the interaction between content and style, and is determined by the narrative and the way in which it is presented to us. This is what gives a film its shape. Let us consider two of the Titanic films, A Night to Remember (1958) and Titanic (1997), both of which deal with the Titanic story from before passengers board the ship until after the sinking when some passengers are rescued. Titanic also includes contemporary footage dealing with underwater exploration of the sunken ship and with the recollections of one of the surviving passengers. The contemporary footage immediately results in a difference between the two films' methods of narration. Titanic is told using flashbacks. The exploration of the sunken ship results in Rose, a survivor of the disaster, contacting the research team, and this in turn creates the possibility of the story being told through her recollections. A Night to Remember does not give us a personalized account of the Titanic; it uses objective rather than subjective narration (see pp. 142-3 below), although both films use omniscient narration too. We are aware of events happening to different people in different locations. A Night to Remember uses documentary footage of the Titanic being launched and its voyage at sea at several points as a way of establishing context and atmosphere and to provide a degree of authenticity. Titanic makes little use of documentary footage. A Night to Remember gives what appears to be a more straightforward account of the ship's voyage, while Titanic is very consciously telling the story in a fictionalized way. A Night to Remember does not have the embellishments of Titanic. The latter film spends a long time introducing and developing characters; the iceberg is not hit until more than 90 minutes into the film, compared with A Night to Remember, in which the iceberg intervenes after half an hour. Both films have characters for us to follow, both films have elements of romance, and both contain class as an issue; however, each film deals with this content in a very different way. The characters in A Night to Remember are not developed far - it is the events that we really follow - whereas in Titanic the events are subservient to the characters (and to spectacle). Titanic conforms to Propp's observations on character types: Jack as the hero, Cal as the villain and Rose as the princess (see pp. 139-40). Hence we can see that the same essential story is constructed and told in very different ways. The same can also be noted for the film techniques used. While the m/se en scene of some shots, essentially those establishing locations, is strikingly similar, the types of shots, use of camera and editing techniques are very different. A Night to Remember tends towards allowing meaning to emerge from the content of the shots (and is thus rooted firmly in the British 'realist' tradition), whereas Titanic goes further in producing meaning from the conscious use of camera and editing techniques such as close ups, crane shots, tracking and cross-cutting. Finally, the eras in which the two films were made also account for some of their differences. A Night to Remember, made in 1958, is a black-and-white film and uses what now seem like primitive special effects and models. The Titanic of 1997 employs complex and convincing models and special effects, heavily based on digital technology and computer-generated images. We have the same story, but visually it is told very differently in each film. Thus we can see how a film's form emerges from the way its narrative is structured and presented through the language specific to film.

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From the small number of examples referred to in this chapter it should already be clear that many different types of film are possible. New films are always being made, and audiences never seem to tire of watching them because the permutations within and between narratives and film techniques are endless, which should ensure continuing innovation and originality. The language of film can be used in many different ways, some of which will be explored in the rest of this book.

S U M M A RY There is more than one way to tell a story - a range of possibilities exist and choices have to be made. A film's form is the result of a multitude of variables, which are themselves the result of decisions taken by those involved in the film's production. Decisions are taken as to how the narrative is to be structured and how it will be narrated. The content of each shot requires careful consideration, the result of which is the shot's mise en scene. The techniques used to film each shot need much thought in terms of camera movement, angle and shot size. The editing together of shots and the use of sound also play a vital part in the construction of a film's form as they produce, enhance and communicate meanings vital to the film's story.

REFERENCES

Peter Cowie, The Cinema of Orson Welles (New York: Da Capo Press, 1973).

Andre Bazin, What is Cinema? Vol. 1 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1967).

James Monaco, How to Read a Film (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981). Jill Nelmes (ed.), An Introduction to Film Studies

Pam Cook and Mieke Bernink (eds), The Cinema Book (2nd edn, London: BFI, 1999). Sergei Eisenstein, The Film Sense (New York:

(2nd edn, London: Routledge, 1999). David Sterritt, The Films of Alfred Hitchcock (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).

Harcourt Brace and Co., 1942). Richard Maltby, Hollywood Cinema (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995). James Monaco, How to Read a Film (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981).

FURTHER

VIEWING

A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Cinema (BFI, 1995). Close-up on Battleship Potemkin by Roger

FURTHER

READING

David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997). Noel Burch, Theory of Film Practice (London: Seeker & Warburg, 1973).

Corman (BBC2, 1995). Reputations; Alfred Hitchcock (BBC2, 1999). Visions of Light (The American Film Institute, 1992). Without Walls: jaccuse Citizen Kane (Channel 4,

1992).

Early Cinema and Film Form The Industry 117 The Audience 120 The Films 123 Summary 131

W

hen film emerged in 1895 as a new form of communication, there was little idea of what its future might hold. It was unclear how it might be used, what its purpose should be

and how people would react to it. In effect, film production was an experiment. Audiences were certainly amazed by the new phenomenon but film-makers wondered how long its novelty value would last. We now know, of course, that film has become a global industry. Cinema is a central part of our lives and over time a range of conventions have developed for making films. This chapter looks at how cinema began, what its characteristics were and how conventions gradually developed. The main focus is on film form in early cinema, with film production placed in context through reference to the developing industry and audience trends of the time.

T H E

I N D U S T RY

Inventions are rarely realized in isolation. Developments in the recording and projection of moving images were being pursued in several countries at the same time, but just as important were the inventions that pre-dated cinema. The means to view moving images had been developed by 1834 by William Horner with the zoetrope, but the images were a series of drawings which mimicked the various stages of motion of a moving object, typically someone running. The ability to produce images that recorded the natural world had been realised in 1827 by Joseph Niepce with the invention of photography. Cinema was the result of bringing together techniques for showing moving images and the technology of recording aspects of the real world (see Chapter 5 on Film Technology).

Camera

and Projection Systems

In 1893 Thomas Edison had unveiled his Kinetoscope moving image system, as developed by W.K.L. Dickson. Edison is also believed to have built the first film studio (called the 'Black Maria'), with sections in the roof to let in light and with the whole building revolving in order to be able to follow the sun. Edison's method of screening films only catered for individual viewers, though, and as such was not a projection system. Other equipment designs were

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developed in 1896 in Britain and the United States, but it is Auguste and Louis Lumiere who are regarded as having produced the first widely used successful camera and projection system in 1895, the cinematographs (see Figure 7.1). It is also the Lumiere brothers who are usually credited with having made the first films in 1895 and with having held the first public screening on 28 December of that year, at the Grand Cafe in Paris. In fact Max Skladanovsky had screened a film on 1 November of the same year in Germany, but his contribution to developing film technology is often forgotten; his camera/projection system was cumbersome and impractical and developed no further, leaving the Lumieres to perfect their system. Other camera and projection designs had also been experimented with in other countries around the same time.

Europe Cinema may have been dominated by the United States for most of the twentieth century, but the early years belonged to Europe. American cinema was outstripped by the film output

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Figure 7.1

The first camera and projection system: the cinematographe (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

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of France, England, Denmark and Italy, and it was only during the First World War that the United States began to dominate the international film industry (see Chapter 1). Production companies such as Nordisk from Denmark, Cines from Italy and Cecil Hepworth's company in England produced and exported many films but France's Pathe Freres and Gaumont led the field. By 1905 Pathe Freres was already vertically integrated, but their control of production, distribution and exhibition was soon to be mirrored by companies in the United States.

The United States By 1900 the three key companies in the United States were American Mutoscope and Biograph, Vitagraph and Edison's company (Figure 7.2). They had a large domestic market to satisfy, though that market was at the time also being fed by European film companies. In the United States the battle was soon on for supremacy within the industry. The Edison company took legal action to prevent other American companies from using cameras and projectors for which Edison claimed the patents. American Mutoscope and Biograph used a different type of camera, however, and they battled with Edison for control of the industry. Both forced other companies to pay for the right to use their equipment designs.

The MPPC The rivalry continued until 1908, when the two companies formed the Motion Picture Patents Company. The new company also included Vitagraph, Essanay, Kalem, Lubin and Selig, all of whom had to pay the two main companies for continued use of patented designs. Although the MPPC aimed to reduce the number of foreign films coming into the country to enable American producers to expand their own share of the market, a deal was struck which allowed Pathe and the Melies company to join. Screenings of foreign films declined in the United States as a result of the increasing power of the MPPC but European cinema continued to dominate the rest of the world.

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Company logos: American Mutoscope and Biograph, Vitagraph, and the Edison Company (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

Figure 7.2

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The MPPC ensured that fees had to be paid by production companies using their camera designs, by distribution companies dealing with their films, and by theatres showing their films and using their projection systems. Thus the MPPC soon became an oligopoly; its small number of companies controlled the emerging American film industry. The stranglehold on the industry was tightened further when Eastman Kodak signed an exclusive deal with the MPPC for supply and use of film stock.

The Independents Nonetheless a thriving independent sector managed to grow within the United States, prompting the MPPC to respond by forming the General Film Company to release exclusively all MPPC films. However, 1912 saw the beginning of the end for the MPPC when a court ruling rejected its claim to exclusive rights to the camera and projection equipment designs. The final blow for the MPPC came three years later in 1915, when it was declared to be undermining competition within the industry and was required to cease its restrictive practices. The independent companies were now in a strong position: their main competitor was weak and the fact that they had not previously been tied into a rigid production structure meant they were more flexible. They made early moves towards producing feature films instead of short one-reelers and many companies, realizing that the most profitable part of the industry was exhibition, reorganized accordingly. Many of these 'independents' in turn became vertically integrated themselves and developed the same monopolistic practices as had the MPPC before them. By 1915, the origins of companies such as Paramount, Fox, Universal, MGM and Warner existed, all of which were to become the core of the Hollywood Studio System during the 1930s and 1940s (see Chapter 1). Initially the American film industry had been mainly based on the East coast and in Chicago, but by 1915 the majority of companies had relocated to the Los Angeles area, which included a district called Hollywood. The weather was more suitable for location shooting - filming was much easier with reliable sunshine - and a greater variety of landscapes was available. The European film industry had also developed monopolistic practices. In France, Pathe Freres and Gaumont dominated, while in Britain most films were exhibited by the GaumontBritish company and the Associated British Pictures Corporation. With the start of the First World War in 1914, however, the film industry in Europe was severely disrupted. The next few years saw the United States establish itself as the dominant international power in the cinema.

T H E

A U D I E N C E

The beginnings of cinema were characterized by uncertainty, as several camera and projection systems existed and film techniques were little more than experimental. It did not take long, however, for those concerned to realize that there was a potentially huge audience for the new form of communication. Cinema audiences were perhaps initially more interested in what the technology could do than in how it was used, since moving images

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were such a novelty - they could surprise and shock, they could provide a spectacle rather than tell stories. Nonetheless, the possibilities for film as entertainment were soon realized.

E x h i b i t i on

The first cinema was opened in France in 1897 by the Lumiere Brothers, while the first US cinema did not open until 1902. Early cinemas were basic, often consisting of nothing more than a screen, a projector, a piano and several rows of chairs. Initial doubts about the viability of public screenings of films soon disappeared and by 1905 the United States had approximately 1,000 cinemas, a figure which had risen to 5,000 by 1908. The industry continued to expand and by 1910 weekly cinema attendances numbered 26 million, a figure which almost doubled over the next five years to reach 49 million by 1915. Cinema building continued apace, led by entrepreneurs such as S.L. Rothafel. Cinemas in the UK were similarly basic and initially had little more than rows of benches surrounding a primitive projector. The Cinematograph Act of 1909 changed this with its requirements of fireproofing and separation of the projection box from the auditorium and the installation of fire exits and toilets. The worst halls closed down and many theatres were converted into cinemas, with 3,500 in existence in the UK by 1915. However, many cinemas closed down during the First World War. In the USA prior to 1905, films tended to be shown wherever facilities existed for entertaining the general public: thus theatres, music halls, vaudeville houses and even funfairs were regularly used. It was common for vaudeville shows to begin and end with short films, but this practice was soon reversed in cinemas where it became common for a vaudeville act to perform while reels were being changed. By 1905 purpose-built venues had become the norm, and these early exhibition theatres were referred to as nickelodeons rather than cinemas, the cost of admission typically being a nickel. Nickelodeons were relatively small and had minimal facilities; they provided cheap entertainment and were well suited to their audience, which tended to be working class. Films provided popular entertainment just as music halls and circuses had done previously, while classical concerts and plays at the theatre tended to be more expensive and remained a middle-class leisure activity.

Entertainment Initially most films were non-fiction. Film's ability to record movement in the real world was sufficiently impressive for it to be entertaining and when films were unable to record actual events, the events were often re-staged to provide a representation of what had happened - typically of a news item of interest to the public. Re-enactments of historic moments were also frequently made and actuality films, especially travelogues, were popular. Fiction films soon became common, though, and proved to be very popular with audiences, who came to look for entertainment and escapism in addition to the information and novelty they were used to. The fiction narratives were usually simple and frequently took the form of comedies. The lack of sound in a film was often compensated for by a piano performance or the use

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of a gramophone, and actors sometimes spoke dialogue behind the screen to match the actions in the film. Sound effects were similarly added. Until about 1905, production companies tended to sell copies of their films to exhibitors, which meant that films had to be screened repeatedly for the initial investment to be recouped. When the practice of renting films replaced that of purchasing them, exhibitors were able to show a greater variety of productions. Audience interest grew again with the arrival of feature films around 1910, which were usually between four and six reels long (60 to 90 minutes) and were often released as serials, with titles like The Perils of Pauline, one reel per week. Serials were in effect a transition between one-reelers and full feature films.

Stars Audiences were thus initially attracted to the cinema by the novelty of experiencing moving images, and soon after by the provision of entertaining stories on film. A further attraction was added by the rise of film stars when audiences began to identify particular actors and admire their performances. By 1909 two stars were already established: Florence Lawrence the 'Biograph Girl' (Figure 7.3) and Florence Turner the Vitagraph Girl'. Whereas previously audiences tended to identify films by the production company name, increasingly stars helped to sell films, and film posters came to highlight the featured star. By 1915, stars were regularly pulling in the crowds. Theda Bara was signed to the Fox company as their studio star and Charlie Chaplin became known as the loveable tramp with bowler hat and cane.

Censorship Some sections of society were nevertheless expressing concern at the rise of cinema as a new form of entertainment. Many felt that cinema was a powerful form of communication and believed it was likely to have an effect upon the audience. At a basic level this was illustrated by audiences who momentarily believed that a train hurtling towards them on a cinema screen was actually about to hit them, but the real concern was with the portrayal

Image Not Available

Figure 7.3

The Biograph Girl, Florence Lawrence (Courtesy Kobal)

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of crime, violence and romance on screen. Concerned US citizens claimed that nickelodeons were likely to become breeding grounds for criminality, violent behaviour and loose morals. There was also a fear from sections of the establishment that film could be used as political propaganda to create social unrest (see Chapter 3 on Cinema, Audiences and Society). However, governments themselves soon turned to using film as propaganda with the onset of the First World War. The developing film industry was aware of growing concern and acted to halt legislation being passed by government. In the United States the major production companies cooperated with an organization calling itself The National Board of Censorship, which was set up in 1909. Wanting to seem responsible, film companies submitted films for preview before releasing them. The production of more serious films - based on literary classics, Shakespeare and religious stories - helped to hold the censors at bay and indeed allowed the industry to censor itself. A similar situation existed in Britain where the British Board of Film Censors, funded by the industry, was founded in 1912.

Exercise 7.1 In what ways would film-viewing during the era of early cinema have been different from your own experience of film-viewing?

THE

F I L M S

Film form changed dramatically between 1895 and 1915. The beginnings of cinema were marked by simple narratives and primitive film techniques. Initially little importance was attached to camerawork and editing; the emphasis was on mise en scene. Particular films have been recognized as indicating major steps in the development of film techniques, but, as with film technology, it is important to remember that new techniques were being explored by many different film-makers in many different countries. There was much crossfertilization of ideas as film-makers influenced one another.

Movement and the Moving Image The first five years of cinema produced few films with identifiable narratives. Films tended not to contain stories in which events were clearly explained and linked together. Shots often seemed to exist in isolation and there was a lack of logical progression in the actions on the screen. None of this should surprise us since the initial fascination with film resulted from its ability to record movement; that it could do this at all was often enough to impress an audience. The first task for film-makers was to understand the different ways in which a camera could be used; only coming to terms with using cameras could film-makers begin to think about telling coherent stories on film. As Kristin Thompson notes: '[D]uring most of the primitive period, films appealed to audiences primarily through simple comedy or

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melodrama, topical subjects, exotic scenery, trick effects and the sheer novelty of photographed movement' (Bordwell et al., 1985, p. 157). The earliest films were very much the creations of the camera operators, who were usually also the director and scriptwriter. However, the emphasis gradually changed over the years as control shifted from the camera operator to the director and/or the producer. Filmmaking was from the outset very much a male-dominated profession, with the notable exception of Alice Guy from France, who was making films by 1896. Also from France, and best known for their early work, were the Lumiere brothers and Georges Melies. Their productions were radically different, though, with the Lumieres tending towards non-fiction films whereas Melies concentrated on fiction. It is perhaps not surprising that travel was a common theme in early films. Not only were modes of transport such as cars and trains rapidly developing at that time, which in turn led to speculation about future modes of travel, but transport is of course about movement, which was exactly what the new cine-cameras could capture on film. What did not provide movement in early films was the camera itself, which usually remained static. This is partly explained by the cumbersome early cameras which were not easy to move during filming, but it is perhaps also explained when we think of the types of popular entertainment that preceded film. Music-hall and theatre performances took place on the stage with action statically framed by the stage curtain, and early films often have the appearance of a recording of a stage performance. This is especially true of many of Melies' films.

Georges Melies In Journey to the Moon (1902) Melies used a static camera and extreme long shots. It would be easy to believe that the events we see take place on a stage, as characters walk on from and off to the sides of the frame and the action takes place against what is obviously a backdrop. The film is typical of much of Melies' work; it is a mix of comedy and fantasy and could be claimed as the first science fiction film: a group of scientists travel in a rocket to the moon (Figure 7.4). The lmpossible Journey was made by Melies the following year and deals with similar themes. Passengers board a train, the train takes to the skies and eventually flies into the sun, where the passengers emerge from the crashed train and end up on a submarine which submerges into the sea. Melies built his own studio, in which he constructed elaborate, fantastic sets. His complex stage designs were complemented by the frequent use of models, especially for simulating travel scenes in fantasy worlds. He often created magical effects on film through the use of stop motion techniques to join together different takes. In The Impossible Journey, stop motion is used to link together actions where the join is disguised through the use of smoke and fire. The film's fantasy world is emphasized through the use of strong colours which were used by Melies to hand-tint the film, making it stand out from the usual repertoire of black-and-white films. As before, takes are static - though a pan shot is used at one point to follow movement - and shot sizes are very long throughout. The film lasts for six and a half minutes and contains fourteen takes, meaning an average of approximately 30 seconds per take; moreover, so skilful is Melies' use of stop motion that it is

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Journey to the Moon (1902): an early fantasy film with extensive use of tableau shots (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

sometimes difficult to ascertain exactly when he has used it. He also makes extensive use of dissolves to link shots together. Such early examples of special effects engendered those of today (see Chapter 5). The use of long takes was a common characteristic of early cinema, as it was for Melies' films. An individual take was often referred to as a tableau. The take commonly covered a whole scene and its length, combined with its being a static extreme long shot, tended to isolate it from the rest of the film. The individual takes, or tableaux, were virtually autonomous as editing did not link takes closely together. Editing was not used to produce or clarify meaning, the content of the takes alone providing meaning. The lack of coherence in some early films is not surprising, partly because of historical and cultural differences for a modern viewer, but especially because the use of long shots and the lack of close ups means that detail in these films is often unrecognizable.

The Lumiere Brothers Travel was also a theme for other film-makers. One of the Lumieres' first films was L'Arrivee d'un train en gare (1895). A static camera framed a station platform and an arriving train with an extreme long shot to record the passengers disembarking. The film was most memorable for its depiction of diagonal movement towards the camera by the train. Most early films lacked a sense of perspective and emphasized two dimensions only. The Lumieres' very first film from 1895 was Workers Leaving the Factory. The Lumieres owned a large photographic company and filmed their employees emerging through the factory gates: a typical example of an actuality film, which is what the Lumieres concentrated on. They did, however, also produce fictional comedy films, their best known being The Waterer Watered (L'Aroseur arose, 1895). A gardener is watering plants until a boy

Figure 7.4

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stands on the hose pipe to stop the water, at which point the gardener looks quizzically at the end of the hose pipe; the boy steps off, leaving the water to suddenly shoot out over the gardener. As far as is known, this was the first comedy film.

Experimentation Early cinema had no conventions; it was all about experimentation. Once the obvious visual possibilities of film had been recognized, some film-makers began to realize the further potential of the medium. The emphasis on recording the real world gradually gave way to attempts at creating the impossible on film. We have already seen examples of this in Melies' work; he was a professional magician and was already skilled in creating illusions. As noted above, Melies used stop motion, using editing to create a kind of jump cut in which elements within a shot suddenly change position, appear, or disappear. In addition, film-makers experimented with running film backwards, with speeding up and slowing down time and with multiple exposures, which involved running the film through the camera more than once to superimpose different images on top of each other. Melies himself used multiple exposures to brilliant effect in his 1900 film The One Man Orchestra. A man walks on stage to play an instrument and then the same man walks on seven times to play seven different instruments, at which point the orchestra is complete.

Early British Films Britain also had its share of film pioneers and experimenters. One of the earliest British films was Rough Sea at Dover, made by Birt Acres in 1895. It contained a static long shot of Dover harbour during a storm and was impressive for its primitive recording of movement. G.A. Smith's Grandma's Reading Glass (1900) broke new ground in the techniques used. The film shows a boy borrowing his grandma's magnifying glass and looking at various objects. The film was interesting in that the action was broken up into several takes, including extreme close ups from the boy's point of view through the magnifying glass (Figure 7.5). This was radically different when compared to the usual long shots that covered all the action in other films. Another notable British film from 1900 was James Williamson's The Big Swallow. This begins with a man becoming aware that he is being filmed. He gradually becomes more irate until he moves towards the camera, mouth wide open, and appears to swallow the camera as his mouth blanks out the screen. At this point an edit takes us to a shot of the cameraman falling into a black hole, followed by another shot of a black screen from which the camera tracks back as it seems to emerge from the man's mouth. The transitions from shot to shot are well timed and hardly noticeable. To return to the theme of travel, Cecil Hepworth made two films in 1900 with cars as the main theme. How it Feels to be Run Over shows a car driving towards the camera; just as the car fills the screen an edit cuts to a black screen on which appears the message 'oh, mother will be pleased'. Explosion of a Motor Car uses stop motion. A car travels down a road and a large cloud of smoke billows from the car. At this point an edit cuts to another take in which a

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Grandma's Reading Glass (1900): an early example of an extreme close up shot (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

very similar cloud of smoke clears to reveal bits and pieces of a car lying on the ground. The two shots appear as one continuous take. This is followed by a policeman looking into the sky and from off screen parts of the car's passengers fall down. Such reference to events outside the camera frame was unusual. R.W. Paul's The Motorist (1906) contains several examples of stop motion and includes the use of models to make the impossible appear on screen. A policeman is caught on a car's bonnet; a convincing dummy falls off in front of the car, which runs over it; the policeman stands up again and runs after the car. Where the running-over seems to be a continuous take, it is in fact two, the second one beginning with the policeman getting up having apparently been run over. Other stop motions in the film create the illusion of a car driving up the front of a house and a car being transformed into a horse and cart. The use of models has the car driving over clouds and around the moon. Cecil Hepworth's 1905 Rescued by Rover was notable for editing that was more complex than that usually found at that time. The film tells the story of a baby that is stolen. The parents are alerted by their dog, Rover, who leads them to the place where the baby has been hidden. There is a coherence to the way the story is told which is lacking in other early films. The editing provides consistency of direction and pace of movement between each shot. Time and space are presented in a way that makes the film's narrative intelligible. The film was so popular that it was remade twice after the negatives wore out from producing so many copies.

Edwin S. Porter To return to the United States, another film that broke new ground in the methods used to tell a narrative was Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery (1903). A gang of outlaws rob

Figure 7.5

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a train; a telegraph operator alerts the sheriff, who rounds up a posse to track down the outlaws. The innovation was in the use of cross-cutting when the film shows the outlaws robbing the train but then cuts to the telegraph operator sending a message. We assume he is trying to alert someone to the robbery. At another point we see the outlaws fleeing on horseback, then after a cut we see the sheriff and his posse; the cross-cut edit indicates to the viewer that there is likely to be conflict. However, the effect is partly lost because of the difficulty of knowing which set of characters we are looking at, since the predominance of extreme long shots makes character identification difficult. Another scene in the film, a tableau, is also made fairly incomprehensible by reliance on an extreme long shot: when the outlaws order all the passengers off the train, the passengers are presumably being robbed by the outlaws but the lack of detail makes it difficult to ascertain if this is the case. The uncertainty of the shot is increased by the fact that it lasts almost 2 minutes. Another unusual element in the film is the inclusion at the end of a close up of one of the outlaws looking straight to camera and firing a gun, effectively at the audience (Figure 7.6). The shot exists outside the narrative, but has the effect of reminding us of the complex relationship between the film and the audience by transforming the viewer into the one being viewed by a character in the film - a technique which has remained unusual throughout cinema history, though we should note the clear homage at the end of Scorsese's GoodFellas!

Film T e c h n i q u e s a n d N a r r a t i v e s The lack of clarity in some early films, partly due to the lack of sound, was the reason why inter-titles were often used, either to explain the situation within which events were happening or to elaborate upon an interaction between characters. Similarly, the acting in early

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Figure 7.6

The Great Train Robbery (1903): an unusual shot which has no relation to the narrative but serves to remind the audience of the presence of the camera (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

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films frequently seems exaggerated and theatrical rather than naturalistic because in the absence of sound it too could help clarify the narrative. The increasing use of genres also helped explain narratives and raise particular expectations in the audience. Common genres of the time were fantasy, comedy, crime, melodrama, chase and actuality (see Chapter 10 on Genre). By 1905, films were regularly built around narratives which had an identifiable beginning, middle and end, contained motivated characters and concluded with some kind of resolution. However, this highlighted the problem of how to clearly tell a visual story. Thompson and Bordwell have identified this issue and the film-makers' response as follows: Filmmakers came to assume that a film should guide the spectator's attention, making every aspect of the story on the screen as clear as possible. In particular, films increasingly set up a chain of narrative causes and effects. One event would plainly lead to an effect which would in turn cause another effect, and so on. (Thompson and Bordwell, 1994, p. 39) Over the next ten years conventions were to become established which aided the coherent presentation of film narratives.

Exercise 7.2 What are the key differences between the characteristics of early cinema and the conventions of Hollywood Studio System films?

Film Form and C o n v e n t i o n s Movement takes place over time and within space. It was necessary that time and space be dealt with appropriately if films were to be able to tell stories clearly. Camera and editing techniques were to provide the solution. The content and function of shots were clarified through the breaking up of scenes into several takes using different shot sizes and camera angles. The increasing use of close ups provided information and detail to the viewer and made it easier to identify characters and develop greater characterization. Variety of camera angles gave a stronger sense of space through the provision of different perspectives on action and location. However, using a greater variety of shot types meant that how the takes were edited together became more important. Consistency in shot content was necessary in terms of speed and direction as well as of location and props. An eye-line match also became necessary when editing between one person and another as they interacted with each other. Cross-cutting also became more common (see Chapter 6). The emphasis on consistency between the takes that were edited together resulted in the concept of continuity editing (see p. 104 above). The types of shots filmed and the way they were edited together needed to present a smooth flowing narrative that progressed logically and clearly so that the story could be easily understood by the audience. By 1915 these techniques were in common use and were in effect film-making conventions, identified

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by Noel Burch as the Institutional Mode of Representation', as distinct from the 'primitive' mode of representation that had gone before. Film form had changed radically since the birth of the medium. Two films that neatly sum up the results of the evolution of film form between 1895 and 1915 are Chaplin's The Tramp and D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, both made in 1915. The Tramp is the story of how a vagabond saves a girl who has been attacked and is then taken in by her family. He comes to believe that she is in love with him, as he is with her, but his heart is broken when her lover arrives. The film makes extensive use of close ups and achieves a depth of characterization unusual in early cinema. The effectiveness of the character development resulted in Chaplin being recognized and remembered for his ability to get an audience to empathize with his character on screen (Figure 7.7). Birth of a Nation is set during the American Civil War and while its racism is objectionable, its use of film techniques is admirable. Griffith brought together and refined the techniques that had been developing since 1895. The use of camera and editing not only provided a clear narrative but also managed to involve the viewer emotionally. Variety of shot size and of camera angle were employed throughout with effective use of cross-cutting, the principles of continuity editing were applied to ensure narrative coherence, and characters were well developed and given a depth not often present in films of the time. The film was an epic: it lasted over three hours and cost $110,000 to make. It is important, however, not to see early films as nothing more than a stage in the development of what we now see as mainstream conventions. Early films existed in their own right as expressions of individual film-makers' creativity and expertise; they also had a particular relationship with audiences of their time and reflected aspects of their respective cultures and societies. It must also be remembered that, in contrast to our own contemporary entertainment cinema, the main aim of early cinema was not to tell coherent narratives. The principal urge was to explore and experiment with the possibilities of the moving picture medium.

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Figure 7.7

The Tramp (1915): effective use of characterization and empathy (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

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Exercise 7.3 What similarities can you identify between early cinema and contemporary film-making?

S UM MARY In 1895 film form was fluid as there were no conventions, and early filmmakers had no guidelines - these manipulators of light were working in the dark. The new medium had a primitive form; narratives were simple and film techniques crude; telling a story via film was difficult and tended to result in a lack of clarity. Film-makers often opted to simply record the world in front of the camera rather than construct a story on film, and it took several years for film to become the basis of a new industry. With the gradual development of sophisticated camera and editing techniques, it became possible to present complex narratives on film. The types of stories and the style of film-making in place by 1915 were to make a major contribution to the established conventions that still underpin much of today's film-making.

REFERENCES

Thomas Elsaesser, Early Cinema: Space, Frame, Narrative (London: BFI, 1990).

David Bordwell, Janet Staiger and Kristin Thompson, The Classical Hollywood Cinema (London: Routledge, 1985). Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell, Film History: An Introduction (New York: McGrawHill, 1994).

James Monaco, How to Read a Film (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981). Jill Nelmes (ed.), An Introduction to Film Studies (2nd edn, London: Routledge, 1999), pp. 15ff. Barry Salt, Film Style and Technology: History and Analysis (London: Starword, 1992). Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell, Film

FURTHER READING Tino Balio (ed.), The American Film Industry

History: An Introduction (New York: McGrawHill, 1994).

(Madison, Wl: University of Wisconsin Press, 1976). Noel Burch, Theory of Film Practice (London: Seeker & Warburg, 1973). Noel Burch, Life to Those Shadows (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1990). Pam Cook and Mieke Bernink (eds), The Cinema Book (2nd edn, London: BFI, 1999).

FURTHER VIEWING Cinema Europe (BBC2, 1995). Early Cinema: Primitives and Pioneers (BFI, 1992). The Last Machine (BBC 1, 1995).

Mainstream and Alternative Film Form Mainstream Narrative and Film Form 132 Alternative Narratives and Film Form 143 Alternative Form and Art Cinema 149 Conclusion 150 Summary 150

y the 1920s particular conventions had become well established for making films.

B

Mainstream techniques such as the organization of time and space through 'invisible'

continuity editing and the verisimilitude resulting from particular uses of m/se en scene and from cause and effect structures and character motivation began to dominate film-making, as exemplified by the output of Hollywood. In this chapter we shall examine the principal ways in which these and other practices contributed to what Noel Burch has called the 'Institutional Mode of Representation', though the more commonly used term is 'Classical Hollywood Narrative' (see Bordwell et al., 1985). This chapter will also discuss the development of alternative narrative forms. Using the ideas of Peter Wollen in particular, we shall describe alternative techniques such as non-linear narratives, lack of character identification, and the attack on conventional forms of pleasure represented by counter-cinema.

M A I N S T R E A M

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Narratives are central to our existence. Not only can our individual lives be seen as stories, but much of our time is spent telling people stories or informing them of things that have happened. Stones consist of people and events, actions, occurrences. Narratives can be defined as 'chains of events'. They contain actions and events that are linked together and which usually revolve around people, the characters within the story. We shall be dealing here with narrative fiction. Although documentary films also usually contain narratives and are often structured in similar ways, these are briefly considered elsewhere (see Chapter 15). Our concern in this first part of the chapter will be the Classical Hollywood Narrative (which has already been signposted particularly in the last two chapters).

Structure Narratives are about things happening, usually about people doing things. We may follow a narrative because the events interest us or because we can relate to the characters.

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However, if we are to clearly understand the content of a film narrative or fully comprehend the meanings intended by the film-maker, the narrative needs to be structured appropriately.

Cause and effect Most narratives are what we can call linear narratives. They move forward in a straight line from beginning to end. The events in such a narrative are linked together via a cause and effect relationship. An event takes place which causes an effect upon something else, thus resulting in a new situation; in turn this new situation has an effect upon other elements within the narrative, again resulting in further change. So taken for granted is this basic narrative requirement that we usually do not think about its function. But consider what would happen to a narrative without this cause-effect process: it would stop, the story would remain static. We would have what is called 'dead time'. Another way of viewing progression within narratives is as a dialectical process. Dialectics, from Plato to Hegel and Marx, is a method for explaining and creating change. It can be summed up by the idea of a thesis which is challenged by an antithesis (an opposite or opposing position); the result of this conflict of ideas or situations is the synthesis, a new concept or situation. The cause and effect structure of narrative works in a similar way, leading us from beginning to end via events, and these events take place within time and space. They occur in particular locations for a certain duration. The centrality of cause and effect, of change, can easily be identified by looking at the opening scene of Scream (1996). Casey is spending a quiet evening alone at home. It is unlikely that we would sit through the whole film if that situation remained unchanged, and of course it does change. Casey's quiet evening is interrupted by the phone ringing. She answers the phone. A threat is made. This results in a new situation: Casey is scared. The cause and effect process is under way. Her fears are then realized by the attack that takes place in her garden: yet another situation. This in turn leads to further actions: attempts to find the attacker, further attacks. The logical way in which this cause and effect process develops is not usually questioned by the viewer, but a different arrangement of elements, a different ordering of events, would soon result in an incomprehensible storyline. If Scream began with the attack in Casey's garden and then cut to her having a quiet evening alone we would soon be confused, or would at the very least be expecting a very different type of film.

Chronology Narratives thus tend to develop in a linear way, and this, crucially, tends to give us a chronological ordering of events. Events unravel in a logical manner over an ordered period of time. Time is a crucial ingredient in film narratives, not only because the medium itself consists of moving images which give films their duration, but also because the relationships between events and characters only become meaningful as they develop over a period of time. The events in Scream are presented chronologically. The story's progression takes place from beginning to end through time in a linear manner. We can easily make sense of the film.

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This is how most film narratives are structured. However, Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994) interrupts this chronological structure and gives us a non-linear narrative (Figure 8.1). The usual chronological development of narrative is disrupted. Pulp Fiction begins and ends with a scene that is split in two and which chronologically occurs half way through the story. The film opens with Honey Bunny and Pumpkin conversing in a cafe. We learn that they have previously carried out armed robberies. The film ends with a continuation of this scene in which the couple carry out an armed robbery of the cafe which is interrupted by Vincent and Jules. In the body of the film the chronological beginning and end of the story are brought together. A young Butch is given a watch that belonged to his father and an older Butch then wins his fight and settles a score with Marsellus. As this latter scene is presented in the film it appears as a flash-forward to the future. We can speculate about why Tarantino chose to reorder the narrative sequences. Certainly it forces us to think more deeply about what we are watching and possibly engages

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Figure 8.1

Quentin Tarantino makes play with narrative in Pulp Fiction (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

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us more fully with the narrative. We are encouraged to be active viewers; we have to question what we see. Or perhaps it was a homage to Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956), which had already experimented with narrative chronology.

Flashbacks A common method of interrupting chronology is through flashbacks. The flow of the story might be interrupted with references to things that have happened in the past. We are taken out of the present of the narrative. Interruptions of narratives, such as those caused by flashbacks, are usually explained and justified so that they do not necessarily disrupt the narrative; indeed they can clarify it. Citizen Kane (1941) tells the story of a powerful newspaper proprietor, Charles Foster Kane. The film begins with Kane's death, followed by journalists looking at newsreel footage of Kane's life. This is followed by the journalists planning to investigate the life of the recently deceased Kane. This is the 'present' of the narrative and we follow one journalist's investigations and interviews with people who knew Kane. However, the interviews consist of reminiscences, which means that much of the film's narrative consists of flashbacks. In this instance the film's initial situation is Kane's death and the short documentary about his life. The disruption comes with the journalists' mission to find out who the real Kane was and, most importantly, why the last word he spoke was 'Rosebud'. The implication of course is that if the journalists want to know, then so do we. Resolution is achieved when we, the viewers, find out the secret of 'Rosebud', which is revealed to us in the present but not to the journalists. The flashbacks have served to tell us about Kane's life and what lay behind the secret of 'Rosebud'.

S t o r y , plot and screen duration The temporal nature of narratives - how they are placed in time - is further elaborated by Bordwell and Thompson. They clarify the difference, with regard to time, between a film narrative's story and its plot They define the story as all the events that we see and hear, plus all those that we infer or assume to have occurred, whereas the plot is the film's actual presentation (which includes the style) of certain events in the narrative. We can clearly illustrate the difference between story and plot by looking at High Noon (1952). Plot time begins at 10.30 a.m. when news breaks that Frank Miller, who was imprisoned 5 years before by Marshall Will Kane, is due in town with the rest of his gang on the noonday train to seek vengeance. Plot time ends at noon with the shoot-out. In other words plot time is 90 minutes. However, story time is over five years, as the film refers to Miller's imprisonment by Kane, though we do not see this. The film is interesting for a further reason. Films usually compress time. A film usually has between 90 and 120 minutes to deal with events often lasting at least several days. High Noon is an exception, as it comes close to presenting the plot in real time: screen duration is 80 minutes compared to the plot time of 90 minutes. Time is clearly integral to the film as we get several glimpses of clocks to remind us of the approach of noon as a method for building suspense. Rope (1948) goes one step further by presenting the plot in real time in just one location. The film appears to be one continuous shot (see p. 101 above).

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8.1

For any three films of your choice, compare the story time and the plot time. How are they related in each of the films?

It is also the case that time can be expanded in a film. The Untouchables (1987) contains a shoot-out scene on the steps of a town hall, part of which is shot in slow motion. The sequence lasts 2 minutes, whereas the fast-moving events would probably have lasted less than half that time. The expansion of time emphasizes the speed of the action by only making it comprehensible when it is slowed down. The sequence is also a homage to Eisenstein's Battleship Potemk/n (1925) and the famous Odessa Steps sequence in which time is also expanded. The attack by the Tsar's troops on the citizens of Odessa is illustrated from various perspectives and points of view; events happening simultaneously are shown to us one after another. The effect is to create a stronger impression of slaughter and savagery. The importance behind these observations is the realization of how time is managed within narratives, how it is manipulated and rearranged in films. Plot is more than story information, however. The style of a film (the m/'se en scene, editing, cinematography and sound) works ceaselessly to provide the viewer with other information, for example about character, about relationships, about mood. Thus the plot of Pulp Fiction informs us at one point that Jules accidentally shoots a captive while talking in the car, then argues with Vincent. This is part of the storyline. But it is the style's contribution to the plot that makes us party to the absurdly matter-of-fact tone of Jules and Vincent's conversation and the (comically) brain-splattered interior of the car. In Citizen Kane, when Kane and Susan talk/argue in Xanadu, plot information includes style: the expressionist lighting, the framing and camera angles accentuate Kane's power and Susan's powerlessness. This difference between story and plot information can be shown in Table 8.1.

Beginnings, middles and ends The beginning of Scream and the film's subsequent events also serve to illustrate another key aspect of narrative theory. Tzvetan. Todorov regarded narratives as typically consisting of three different stages. A narrative usually begins with an equilibrium, a state of harmony

Table 8.1

Story and plot information Type

Order

Result

story

explicitly presented events rearranged into chronological sequence

inferred events built into the sequence of explicitly presented events

plot

explicitly presented events, not necessarily in chronological sequence

added stylistic/non-diegetic material

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or balance in which the audience is introduced to key characters and locations. We get to know characters and perhaps identify with them. The next phase of the narrative sees a disruption of the initial equilibrium as a problem is introduced. This is one way in which the audience can be 'hooked' into the storyline. It is intended that we will want to follow the key characters through the story until they have solved the problem. This brings us to the third stage of a narrative: a new equilibrium is achieved, the problem is resolved, harmony and balance are restored. Traditionally this equates with a happy ending, with closure as the story is brought to an end. We can note that this also fits neatly with the cause and effect nature of a typical narrative which we identified earlier in this chapter. Analysis of Scream confirms Todorov's model as appropriate to this particular narrative. The equilibrium is Casey intending to have a pleasant evening at home, a situation with which we can probably identify. The disruption is clearly the phone call followed by the attack. Casey has a problem and soon her friends have one too. The narrative is driven by the attempts to identify the killer, with a few more attacks along the way to add greater urgency. The new equilibrium, or restoration of harmony, is achieved with the unmasking of the source of the attacks. The problem is solved, a resolution is obtained. The narrative essentially conforms to Todorov's model, as do most film narratives. Closure is provided.

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However, while we may experience Scream as a complete narrative with closure, there has of course been a Scream 2 (1998). This obviously places a question mark over the degree of closure in the first film. The financial attraction of sequels is obvious, but the potential for a sequel is unknown until the degree of popularity of the initial film is established. It is a risky strategy to make a film with an obviously open ending which may prove unsatisfactory. For example when John Sayles' Limbo (1999) ends with a fade to white and no evident narrative closure, there have often been loud groans from the audience! In reality, film-makers are now adept at making films that appear closed but hold the possibility of continuation. Nor is this a recent strategy. Star Wars (1977) is one instalment in a six-part story. No doubt George Lucas perceived this particular section of the story as having the best chance of success. As a film it stands on its own as a complete story. However, as we now know, it is the fourth of six episodes; in other words, it is also an openended narrative. In this respect it is not such a typical narrative. Being just a part of a larger narrative also explains why the beginning of Star Wars is at variance with the conventions of film narratives. As we have seen, an equilibrium is normally found at the beginning of a narrative, yet Star Wars begins in medias res (a Latin expression which means 'in the middle of things'), with action, with a battle in space, which visually strikes the viewer as a disruption. The only thing that would stop us defining it as a disruption is the fact that we have no knowledge of what came before and therefore do not know what could have been disrupted. We now know that Star Wars begins this way because it is a continuation of episode three. No doubt another good reason for beginning Star Wars this way is that it immediately launches us into the action, which is one of the key elements of its narrative. We have virtually no time to consider the narrative itself. Events move quickly

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and conflict is everywhere. Thomas Schatz summed up Star Wars and the film trend that followed as 'plot-driven, increasingly visceral, kinetic and fast paced, increasingly reliant on special effects, increasingly "fantastic".' (Schatz, 1993, p. 23).

Single- and multi-strand

narratives

If the essential storyline of Star Wars moves rapidly from point A to point B, the same cannot be said of all film narratives. While most films contain one main storyline, Do the Right Thing (1989) can be described as a multi-strand narrative. There are several storylines running throughout the film which occasionally cross paths with one another. In many respects Do the Right Thing is like a soap opera narrative; it is even left open-ended. Although Mookie, played by Spike Lee, may be the central character, at least twelve other characters who regularly crop up have key roles within their own storylines, as well as within the narrative as a whole. They raise various issues and present a range of messages on race, parenthood, family, unemployment, enterprise and gender. It is a different type of film in both its narrative structure and the imaginative film techniques used. However, it is far from being an 'alternative' film; it still provides a coherent and entertaining narrative, albeit with political messages that often challenge mainstream beliefs.

Characters and Actions While the events within a narrative may well catch our attention, action on its own is unlikely to be enough to carry us all the way through a film. The number of films based primarily on action may have increased in recent years, but characters are usually required to involve us fully in a film. This is partly because most actions are initiated by characters anyway, but also because as human beings we tend to link into a film much more easily through the representation of other human beings within a narrative.

Characters as protagonists Almost invariably it is the main characters who are the protagonists in a film. They are the people within the story who cause things to happen. Exceptions are films where the driving force is a natural disaster that causes events. Yet even in such films individual human agency is usually woven into the narrative. In Twister (1996) it is tornadoes that provide the disruption. However, while on one level the equilibrium is a community before it is hit by a tornado, on another level the equilibrium is the lead character intending to settle down with his girlfriend. For the communities the arrival of the tornadoes is the disruption, while for the lead character the disruption is him being drawn back into 'tornado chasing' with his old friends, which poses a problem for his relationship. For the communities the new equilibrium is provided by the departure of the tornadoes, while for the lead character the new equilibrium is him agreeing to leave his fiancee and return to his previous lover, who is a kindred spirit, a fellow tornado chaser. This provides resolution, closure and a happy ending.

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M o t i v a t e d characters For a film to involve the audience fully it will normally need to deal with the lives of individuals. As individuals in a relatively individualistic society, this is what we are likely to relate to. What we really follow in Twister is the lead character and his associates. They are motivated; they want encounters with tornadoes. This in turn makes them protagonists in that their motivations lead them to make things happen through the decisions they take. It is intended that we will identify with their desire for adventure and follow them through their dangerous adventures.

Exercise 8.2 For any three films you have seen recently, examine the motivations of the central characters. How do their drives and desires make the narrative go forward?

Character

functions

Vladimir Propp has provided an interesting analysis of the kinds of characters contained by certain kinds of narratives. He analysed hundreds of Russian folk stories and identified eight main types of characters in terms of what their functions were within the narrative: the hero, the villain, the donor, the helper, the princess, the princess's father, the dispatcher and the false hero. While we need to be careful in judging the relevance of such analysis because of cultural and historical differences, the research having been undertaken in the Soviet Union in the 1920s, Propp's conclusions can be seen to be useful, even though he was only looking at a particular type of narrative. 'Proppian' analyses have been carried out, for example, on Hitchcock's North By Northwest (1959) and on the James Bond films, and a film-friendly model has been developed by ex-scriptwriter Christopher Vogler (1992). A cursory glance at Star Wars soon reveals how the first five of Propp's character functions or types are appropriate. The hero is Luke Skywalker, the villain is Darth Vader, the donor is Obi Wan Kenobi, who gives Luke the 'force'; the helper is Han Solo, and the princess is Leia. Princess Leia is not of course the typical helpless princess of fairytales; she could not afford to be in a 1977 film, given the changes in gender values that had occurred as a result of the feminist movement. However, if we take account of changes in gender representation by broadening out the categories of hero and princess to encompass heroines and 'princes', Propp's model is still surprisingly appropriate. Lucas' Star Wars provides clear examples of the roles of characters and actions within a film. This is especially the case with Luke Skywalker. When we first meet him he is living with relatives, helping run a mundane business buying, selling and repairing robots. Luke is restless; he is in his teens, he wants to break away, to be independent, to prove himself a man and to have adventures (and is therefore also an ideal identification figure, especially for adolescent males). In other words, he is already motivated but needs a definite purpose, a clear goal. This is provided by the discovery that Princess Leia has been caught and is

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seeking help. Luke requests the help of the wise old Obi Wan Kenobi, who aids his rites of passage in this story, seeing Luke safely on his way from boyhood to manhood. Luke is the protagonist, the main character who has a purpose. However, on its own this is not enough for an interesting story. An antagonist is needed, someone who opposes Luke's intentions. Once we have met the evil Darth Vader and the Empire, we are well placed to take the side of Luke against the villain. We identify with Luke and his mission to see good triumph over evil. Good versus evil implies conflict, and this is a regular feature of Star Wars. The conflict drives the narrative forward, as it does in many classical narratives. Princess Leia is rescued but her planet is still threatened with destruction. Finally our hero saves the planet by destroying Darth Vader's (and the Empire's) base. The hero is rewarded by the princess. Happy ending.

Some Aspects of Style Narratives can be considered in terms of content and structure. They consist of events which are organized in a particular way. The process of presenting a narrative is called narration, and the way in which a narrative is presented can be identified as its style. The principal components of film style (mi'se en scene, cinematography, editing and sound) have been described in Chapter 6 above and much of their relevance to narrative has been considered; here we shall briefly consider how a few particular aspects of style contribute to mainstream narrative.

Voice-over We experience a film's narrative largely through what we see characters doing and what dialogue we hear from them. Other audio-visual elements such as written text and music are used to add meaning to the film. Usually these forms of communication are sufficient to produce a coherent narrative and create the desired effect. However, another method for helping to deliver the narrative is voice-over narration, which tends to be used for two reasons. First, it may be used to reinforce the account of an 'omniscient' narrator. Second, it may serve to provide a personal interpretation of narrative events. Voice-over narration was particularly common in crime/detective films and films noirs of the 1940s. The voice-over narration supplements what we see and hear. We get a personal point of view of the events, though not usually a visual point of view. An example of this technique can be found in Double Indemnity (1944). In this particular film the narration is built into the actual narrative. Walter Neff records his confession and explanation of a murder he has become involved in. The narration supposedly comes from the recording we see him begin to make at the start of the film. The voice-over then accompanies the story of how Neff became embroiled in helping to murder Phyllis Dietrichson's husband in order to make a life insurance claim. The story could have been told without voice-over narration but then we would not have had such a personal interpretation of events. 8/ade Runner (1982) also uses a voice-over. The voice-over narration is supplied by Deckard, the main character. Deckard has supposedly retired as a cop whose job was to kill

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rogue replicants, cyborgs built to perform human tasks. He is forced back into his old job to eradicate some new and dangerous replicants. The narration takes us through his thoughts and retells the story. Blade Runner is an interesting example because Ridley Scott later released Blade Runner: The Director's Cut (1991), in which the voice-over had been removed. The effect of this is to distance us from Deckard, making it easier for us to see things from the perspectives of other characters in the film. Without voice-over narration we are required to think more about what we see and hear. Things are not explained so clearly, and the viewer has to be more active. However, we are most likely to come across voice-over narration in documentary narratives. A documentary usually aims to investigate a particular subject and to reveal information. Although interviews may be used, it is often the case that not all the required information is revealed through the shots and dialogue. A voice-over may be added to supplement the 'raw' information. Examples of this practice are to be found in the classic documentaries produced by John Grierson in the 1930s and 1940s. He saw documentaries as having a potentially democratizing effect through their educational value and ability to expose social inequalities. In one way or another the documentaries he produced tended to deal with the living and working conditions of the British working class, among the most famous films being Cavalcanti's Coalface (1935) and Night Mail (1936). Voice-over narration was used to provide greater detail and to guide the audience towards a particular interpretation, and such techniques have since been and remain very common in TV documentaries.

Restricted and unrestricted

narration

Other choices also need to be made about how narratives are to be presented. The narrative information given to us can be restricted or unrestricted (the latter is also sometimes called 'omniscient' narration; see p. 208 for discussion of the 'classic realist text'). Each method can be used to powerful effect. As Warren Buckland notes: 'in restricted narration, the spectator only knows as much as one character, resulting in mystery. In omniscient narration, the spectator knows more than the characters, resulting in suspense' (1998, p. 34). Although restricted narration links the narrative to one character, it is not necessarily from their perspective. This form of narration can create mystery because we are unaware of what is happening elsewhere. We are left guessing; we do not know everything. At the end of Scream, it appears that the two murderers, Stewart and Billy, have been killed and we begin to relax as the threat seems to be over, but we and Sydney are shocked by the sudden appearance of Randy in a close up shot of Sydney. Again we relax, only to be startled twice more by Billy suddenly coming to life - an effect we may see as comic, but only after we have recovered from the shock. We are as surprised as Sydney because the presentation of the narrative has not prepared us for these interventions; information has been withheld and restricted. Unrestricted narration, on the other hand, links the viewer to several characters and locations. We move from one to another. We can see how characters and events may coincide and have an effect upon each other; the viewer is in a privileged position. This form of narration is very capable of creating suspense because we may see what is about to happen

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while the characters may not. Towards the end of Psycho (1960) we are aware that Norman has put his mother in the fruit cellar. Lila, sister of the murdered Marion, has made her way to the house to question Norman's mother. She believes Norman's mother is harmless; the spectator has been led to believe she is a murderer. We are aware of something Lila does not know. We follow Lila around the house and it seems that she has managed to avoid the fruit cellar. However, she finds it by accident when she has to hide from Norman. Hitchcock continues to tease us by having Lila begin to walk down the steps to the cellar, only to stop and turn around, then finally continue down to the cellar. This creates suspense. We foresee two situations coinciding and feel like telling her to turn around and escape. While restricted narration is more likely to be used for shock, unrestricted narration is ideal for suspense as Hitchcock himself knew very well. In a famous interview with French director Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock explained it thus: We are now having a very innocent little chat. Let us suppose that there is a bomb beneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, 'Boom!' There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware that the bomb is going to explode at one o'clock and there is a clock in the decor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions this same innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen: 'You shouldn't be talking about such trivial matters. There's a bomb beneath you and it's about to explode!' In the first case we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second case we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the public must be informed. (Truffaut, 1978, pp. 79-80, original emphasis) A good example in which this principle is illustrated graphically is when three bombs are planted and we anxiously wait for them to explode in Gillo Pontecorvo's Battle of Algiers (1966). In reality, films often mix restricted with unrestricted narration, depending on the scene and on the requirements of the narrative. Star Wars generally uses unrestricted narration but occasionally we receive restricted narration, as in the final battle scene when we share Luke Skywalker's point of view during his attempt to blow up the Death Star, and do not realize that he is being backed up by Han Solo in the M/7/enn/um Fa/con.

O b j e c t i v e and subjective

narration

Narrative information can also be presented subjectively or objectively. Subjective narration tells the story from a character's point of view; this is not necessarily their optical point of view but may be their mental perception of events. An example occurs in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920). The narrative is presented as known by Francis. The film tells his story, of

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how Dr Caligari hypnotizes his accomplice Cesare to commit murders. Francis intends to expose what Caligari is doing. He tracks Caligari, who goes into hiding in a lunatic asylum. However, by the end of the film we return to objective narration and learn that Francis is an inmate of the asylum and Caligari is his doctor. Battleship Potemk/n provides a very objective narrative. We do not get close to any of the characters. We do not see things from their perspectives, although we do see a range of characters as part of the events that are shown to us. The film is a fictionalized account of a sailors' mutiny against the Russian Tsar's regime and the support given to the sailors by the townsfolk of Odessa. The film's narrative has no individual protagonists as such, preferring to present the events as the result of political developments within society. The film provides an overview of this particular incident from 1905 rather than a character's personalized account. Many films mix objective with subjective narration. For instance, in Citizen Kane, the narration from the beginning of the film to the start of the journalists' investigations is objective. We observe events. However, when the characters interviewed provide us with their flashbacks, we initially experience subjective narration, although the flashbacks too eventually resort to objective narration. Thus within a particular flashback, events may be shown or described which the flashback's 'narrator' could not have seen or experienced. For example, at one point during the account of Susan's disastrous singing career, an apparent crane shot (which is in fact a cleverly edited fabrication) takes us from Susan on stage up to beneath the roof to show two stage hands silently expressing their disgust: these two characters would have been invisible to anyone else. Subjective and objective narration are often combined with restricted and unrestricted narration. Close analysis is sometimes required to identify which is being used. A voice-over might give us a subjective viewpoint of events from a character's perspective, or it could be an objective description of events that is not personalized. It also needs to be remembered that using restricted narration which shows us events linked to one particular character is not necessarily subjective. We may not see events from the character's perspective. Similarly, unrestricted narration which presents events in relation to several characters is not necessarily objective, as the presentation of various events and characters may be retold from a very personal point of view.

A L T E R N A T I V E

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The vast majority of films, whether American, British, Brazilian or Japanese, have been structured around the kind of mainstream narrative described above. Such narratives tell stories about characters who are 'believable' (either because they are 'realistic' or because they correspond to accepted genre stereotypes) as they experience a series of events within a relatively coherent time and space. It may be worth repeating that such films, as part of the commercial film industry, are made with profit in mind: the aim is to make money. As is stressed elsewhere, this also tends to mean that such films are likely to belong to a genre and to contain stars, as both these factors tend to help in targeting a large audience.

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Throughout most of cinema's history, though, some film-makers have refused this mode of film-making and have experimented with other kinds of narratives; indeed some have refused narrative altogether. Among famous examples of narratives being constructed quite differently from the dominant model outlined above were the Soviet Montage films and Surrealist films of the 1920s; these will be considered in Chapters 14 and 15.

A F u r t h e r Note on ' I n d e p e n d e n t F i l m s ' Independent' is a term which has often been applied particularly to American films since the 1960s, as in 'US Independents'. But what does 'independent' mean in the cinema? We may recall that the early years of American film-making were dominated by the Motion Picture Patents Company, and it was only when the MPPC's activities were judged illegal in 1915 that other struggling companies became successful. These fledgling companies included Warner Brothers and Paramount, who were at the time the 'independents' of American cinema. Some 50 years later, as the studio system had to find ways to adapt to the 1948 antitrust legislation, changing lifestyles and television competition, increasing numbers of films were produced by 'independent' companies: companies set up, sometimes by maverick filmmakers, for the production of a single film; such companies hired facilities from the studios but were otherwise financially independent. However, as successful production companies were established, and as the restriction on vertical integration was eroded during the Reagan years, powerful commercial concerns came to dominate all sectors of the industry, most noticeably distribution (see pp. 66-7 above). It is thus very debatable whether the films of Tarantino and Jarmusch, for example, can really be called 'independent'; Pulp Fiction, for all its innovation, was co-financed by Miramax, as was Jarmusch's Dead Man (1995). Perhaps the only productions which can be considered 'independent' are those dependent neither on Hollywood or multinational conglomerate finance nor on state sponsorship. Truly independent films would thus not be purely commercially driven, and would be produced for aesthetic or political reasons. The style and content of such films would challenge mainstream conventions and ideologies. Truly independent cinema stands apart from popular or commercial mainstream film and is generally considered to be marginalized, alternative, or oppositional. Though films which refuse the dominant rules of story-telling form a tiny percentage of all films ever made, they have been (and continue to be) an important part of film history and culture. Why is this?

Form and Ideology Films have a deep sensory appeal and have often been compared with dreams. It is this unconscious aspect of the film experience which has provoked much suspicion and criticism of classical narrative film form - and which has also inspired the use of film as propaganda. In this section we shall look at some of the criticisms levelled at mainstream narrative

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entertainment films and at some examples of alternative film forms: films which demonstrate a refusal of the kind of narrative described thus far in this chapter. The appeal to the unconscious was an important part, for example, of the Surrealist project, in film and in other art forms. Here we shall be concerned mostly with the attacks on mainstream narrative coming from a more political critique which was first mounted in the 1970s; we shall also briefly consider the contributions made by 'art cinema'. Since Brecht and Eisenstein, it has been argued that film, theatre and indeed written narratives in western cultures have been constructed in such a way as to seduce the reader/spectator into accepting the dominant ideologies of the age. Among these have been assumptions about heterosexual, monogamous relationships within 'nuclear' family units which, so the argument goes, are designed to reproduce the class, gender and race relations suitable for capitalist exploitation. If poor, downtrodden spectators 'buy into' a social system which actually oppresses them and keeps them poor and enslaved, it is in large part because they unconsciously absorb messages about 'how society has to be' which are disguised as innocent entertainment. Millions of words have been printed arguing about how exactly this happens (and a few more are printed in Chapter 12, in which we shall consider ideology in slightly more detail), but there is a persistent belief, shared here, that this is indeed the job that ideology does through the media representations which surround us. The very form of narrative as exemplified by Hollywood came under attack in a 1970s argument between Guy Hennebelle and James Monaco over whether it was possible to make responsible films about political subjects within a conventional narrative format. While Hennebelle argued that films such as those of Constantin Costa-Gavras (Z, 1969;

State of Siege, 1973;

Missing, 1982) would be consumed principally as

thrillers and that their political 'message' would therefore be lost, Monaco argued that the narrative 'hook' was essential to get audiences to see the films in the first place: as George Bernard Shaw pointed out, if there is a pill to be swallowed, it is best that it be sugar-coated. The debate was not so much about the 'obviously' progressive/antiestablishment values and beliefs promoted in films such as The China Syndrome (Bridges, 1978) and Hidden Agenda (Loach, 1990), but rather about whether the use of mainstream narrative techniques somehow neutralized the political effectiveness of such films.

Godard and Counter-cinema While there was no shortage of critics and theorists engaging in these arguments, a number of film-makers - predictably outside Hollywood - put theory into practice and made films which deliberately rejected conventional narrative forms. Among these was Jean-Luc Godard (see also pp. 264-5), particularly in the films he made between 1967 and 1972. In an influential article written in 1972, Peter Wollen advanced the term counter-cinema to describe Godard's (and others') anti-narrative films. He organized the differences between conventional narrative film and counter-cinema into seven oppositions.

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1 Narrative transitivity versus narrative intransitivity: conventional narrative has a coherent plot with events following one another in a cause and effect structure - this will serve as a definition of 'transitivity'. In counter-cinema, events do not follow each other in a logical cause and effect structure; there is likely to be digression and (deliberate) incoherence. Pulp Fiction is not an example of counter-cinema because despite Tarantino's games with chronology, the film is still composed of large narratively coherent chunks, which have only to be placed in the correct order for the puzzle to be solved. In Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet's Not Reconciled (Nicht versohnt, 1965), on the other hand, the action takes place in at least three historical periods (corresponding to a character's youth, middle age and old age); yet it is extremely difficult to work out 'what is going on' as jumps in time are not signalled as they usually are by fades, by character motivation or cinematography (a zoom in to a face may usually signal a memory flashback, for example). In addition, no attempt is made to provide an illusion of passage of time by showing younger or older characters or by evoking a historical period: characters tend to look the same and to speak in the same way whether they are 20 or 70 years old! Needless to say, part of the aim here is to force the spectator to actively work out what is happening. The same 'active spectatorship' is necessary for such Godard films as Weekend (1967), Wind from the East/Vent d'est (1971) and One Plus One/Sympathy for the Devil (1969); in the last of these, shots of a Rolling Stones recording studio session are intercut with scenes exploring themes such as black power and feminism. 2 Identification versus estrangement: characters in mainstream narratives are generally constructed, made up, costumed and filmed in such a way as to encourage audience identification. Such characters may 'represent' social groups or positions, and they will often act naturalistically, or at least in a way we would expect according, say, to the genre. The spectator is also likely to be drawn into a conventional narrative to identify with events and situations: part of the 'reality effect' of film. By contrast, counter-cinema rejects such identification; the work of 'drawing in' and identification of conventional narrative are seen as central to the passing of ideologies referred to above. Instead, characters are often fragmented; no attempt is made to make them 'believable'; the same actor may play more than one role (this was a common practice in Brecht's theatre). Actors may look/stare at the camera - this has been called the 'fourth look' perhaps while they and the spectator listen to a speech by another character, highlighting their 'role' in the film and breaking any identificatory spell. Weekend contains many such moments. Finally, voices may not match characters; sometimes it is difficult to work out 'who' is speaking. Marguerite Duras' India Song (1975) contains plenty of dialogue, but none of it is synchronized; again, the spectator needs to work hard to make meaning. An important way in which most mainstream films bind in the viewer and encourage identification is through continuity editing and especially through shot/reverse

shot

sequences (see Chapter 6 above). These are also commonly refused in films such as Weekend and Sympathy for the Devil. Completely different editing patterns are used, and the long take or shot-sequence (a shot lasting 10-20 minutes) is common. 3 Transparency versus foregrounding: just as in most films characters are constructed so as to seem 'believable', the overall mise en scene is likely to conceal the artifice of

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film-making and to promote the illusion. An ever greater degree of 'realism' is demanded (not least by audiences) in the representation of fights, bodily mutilations and transformations, accidents, blood, etc., not to mention the assumed verisimilitude of the film's settings. In just the same way as with acting and character, counter-cinema refuses such illusionism and is not afraid to declare 'this is a film'. Props and settings may not seem 'realistic', and cameras, sound booms and other film-making equipment (and personnel) may be part of the film itself. In Godard's Vent d'estand Sympathy for trie Devil, characters who are meant to be tortured or beaten up have red paint thrown at them. When a character in Weekend is murdered, a dead fish is shown in a puddle of red paint. Vent d'est contains a sequence in which the production personnel hold a chaotic meeting about how to proceed with the film. In this and a wider variety of films, the use of freeze frames, direct address to camera, hand-held camera and jump cuts and other discontinuities draws attention to the film's status as film and helps to break the habitual mainstream narrative illusion. Again, though, it is a matter of degree: if such techniques are used superficially (as a way of 'showing off or as a kind of director 'signature'), they cannot be said to be counter-cinematic. This strategy (again also frequently used in Brechtian theatre) also has literary roots: the Russian Formalists of the early twentieth century urged such foregrounding with the notion of 'making strange' (ostranenie). Since Brecht, such an anti-illusionist strategy has also been termed the 'alienation-effect' (Verfremdungs-Effekt). It distances the spectator, promoting contemplation and analysis rather than involvement and identification. 4 Single diegesis versus multiple diegesis: most film narratives take place in a single 'world': Scream and Citizen Kane both take place in and around the USA of the central characters. Sometimes, as in The Wizard of Oz or even The Deerhunter, two (or more) 'worlds' may be very different, but there is narrative motivation for movement between them: in The Deerhunter we spend the first hour of the film getting to know the main characters in a small industrial town, before being plunged into the Vietnam nightmare: this is clearly motivated as we know three of the characters are about to leave for Vietnam. Some counter-cinema films, by contrast, move between narrative 'worlds' without apparent motivation: again the spectator must make sense of it. In Weekend, two central characters are on a journey through central France, but meet characters in nineteenthcentury costume and become involved with a band of anarchist cannibals living in a forest. The existence of these different diegetic worlds is not motivated by events in the narrative. 5 Closure versus aperture: mainstream narrative films usually concern a relatively closed and self-contained world, and references to other worlds and texts are generally integrated into the narrative. The narrative closure of most films reinforces this sense of the film as a unity - a unity which some writers have called 'organic'. By contrast, countercinema's frequent references to other films/texts does not seek to integrate such references into an 'organic' whole, but indulges in the references for their own sake or just to make a point. Thus many Godard films are full of cinematic, cultural and literary references or 'quotes'. We shall return to this aspect of counter-cinema when we discuss postmodernism in Chapter 12.

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6 Pleasure versus unpleasure: though it may seem strange (even incomprehensible?), this is a crucial aspect of counter-cinema and of critical discussion of entertainment films. According to the counter-cinema argument, the pleasures of mainstream entertainment films seduce the spectator into a state of passive receptivity so that ideologically reactionary/conservative 'messages' are allowed free passage. By contrast, some critics and film-makers have insisted on the need to dismantle this kind of pleasure, and have called openly for its destruction: It is said that analysing pleasure, or beauty, destroys it. That is the intention of this article. The satisfaction and the reinforcement of the ego that represent the high point of film history hitherto must be attacked. Not in favour of a reconstructed new pleasure, which cannot exist in the abstract, nor of intellectualised unpleasure, but to make way for a total negation of the ease and plenitude of the narrative fiction film. (Laura Mulvey, in Nichols, 1985, p. 306) While the political and ideological analysis of such theorists and filmmakers has been sound enough, they have ultimately perhaps overestimated the number of people prepared to see films which require hard work. A sequence in Weekend consists of a single 8-minute tracking shot showing a (non-'realistic') traffic jam with horns blowing throughout (Figure 8.2); a single shot in Godard's Tout va bien (1972) tracks repeatedly to and fro past the many checkouts of a hypermarket to portray a slowly escalating disturbance in the aisles. Such writers and film-makers have no doubt also tended to underestimate the human need for 'pleasure'; following George Bernard Shaw, even Brecht recognized the strategic importance of providing pleasure for the audience: 'Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral' [loosely translated, 'First the eats, then the moral']. How effective can counter-cinema and oppositional films be if most people do not want to see them?

Image Not Available

Figure 8.2

An everyday traffic jam in Godard's Weekend (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

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The whole issue of how pleasure is produced and why we sometimes experience pleasure (and sometimes not) is a complex one which will be considered further in chapter 12 below. 7 Fiction versus 'reality1: it can be argued that all films, including documentaries, are 'fiction'. Since it is impossible to 'show reality' on film, the aim of counter-cinema has been to force the audience to confront reality: the reality of the film-making, the reality of the viewing experience, each spectator's own social and individual reality. Such is the aim of all the strategies outlined above. Films such as Godard's Vent d'est and Struggle in Italy (Lotte in Italia, 1969) and the early films of the American Jon Jost (for example, Speaking Directly, 1974) feature a direct address and implication of the spectator which systematically refuse the usual fictionalizing pleasures of the cinema.

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After his French New Wave films of the 1960s, Godard gained fame and notoriety with his Maoist/Marxist-Leninist-inspired 'difficult' period of 1968-72, corresponding to the 'countercinema' described above. He was not alone in his politicized rejection of the status quo, but not all film-makers were so dogmatic in their politics. A contrast is provided, for example, by the work of Marguerite Duras, a French writer who turned to film-making in 1971 and proceeded to make some 20 films (see p. 163). While her films conform to a number of aspects of counter-cinema (especially the refusal of identification and of simple narrative structure), her motivation was less a political or ideological programme than simple disgust with the illusionism of conventional film form. More recently, Derek Jarman took the counter-cinema oppositions to the limit with Blue (1993), a meditation on life, death and AIDS and art conducted through an otherwise imageless blue screen: meaning is here almost entirely carried by the voice-over and music soundtrack. In some ways almost all 'art' cinema can be seen as more or less rejecting Hollywood's narrative conventions, sometimes in the pursuit of more indigenous story-telling forms. 'Art' films, where they use narratives at all, typically do not contain fully developed 'characters' in the classical sense, and the cause and effect chain is often weak or non-existent. The distinction needs to be made, though, between those film-makers who are clearly critical of conventional narrative forms and those whose motivation is some version of personal creativity. While directors such as Godard, Duras and Jarman and also avant-garde structuralist-materialist film-makers such as Michael Snow and Peter Gidal have clearly rejected conventional forms as inadequate (if not downright oppressive), others such as Raul Ruiz and Peter Greenaway have been less obviously political in their playful experiments with narrative forms. The case of film-makers working outside the so-called 'developed countries' and the major film-producing centres (such as Ousmane Sembene, Med Hondo and others) will be considered in Chapter 14. While (well-known) directors like Godard, Straub and Fassbinder pursued their political agendas in the glare of critical scrutiny, the 1970s also saw an explosion of film-making in Western

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Europe by relatively unknown individuals and collectives who were equally committed to political change and to re-educating the spectator. Many of these films became 'unfashionable' over the Thatcher years (1979-94) and some people now treat them as a kind of political freak show. Nevertheless film-makers like Werner Schroeter, Marc Karlin, the Berwick Street Collective, the Newsreel Collective and Laura Mulvey herself (Penthesilea, 1974; Riddles of the Sphinx, 1977) (to name but a few) contributed an important chapter to the evolution of film form.

It can certainly be argued that the distinctions drawn here between Classical Hollywood Narrative and alternative forms are less clear than they once were. According to Richard Maltby, following the collapse of the classical Hollywood Studio System and the need for innovation during the spread of television in the 1950s, the following two decades (from 1960 to 1980) saw a considerable loosening of the Classical Narrative conventions as they have been outlined in the above pages, a loosening which was hastened by the lifting of many censorship restrictions and by growing social liberalization. It is interesting to note, however, that Maltby (1995, pp. 221-8) also notes evidence of a return to classical Hollywood storytelling in 1980 (his example is Ordinary People), and links this to a return to more conservative family and other ideologies, also evidenced by the political regimes in Britain and the USA during that decade. If the narrative landscape of commercial films has evolved since the 1980s, perhaps incorporating and neutralizing some aspects of the previously revolutionary counter-cinema, it is perhaps time to introduce the notion of the postmodern ... but we shall have to wait until Chapter 12 to do so.

Exercise 8.3 Try applying the counter-cinema definitions to a recent commercial film. If the film seems to fit in with some counter-cinema criteria, how would you explain this?

Finally it is worth stressing that counter-cinema films were (on the whole) not made as part of some cruel, perverse joke. Many counter-cinema films are rich, dense texts which can reward the work necessary in watching and studying them. But such films are rarely 'entertaining'.

SUMMARY Whatever the exact structure, style or content of a mainstream narrative, particular film techniques tend to be used in order that the narrative may be presented coherently, so that the audience does not have to work too hard to understand.

M a i n s t r e a m

and

A l t e r n a t i v e

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Form

151

These techniques were consolidated with the rise of the Hollywood Studio System: continuity editing ensures that the narrative is easily understandable by arranging shots in a certain order; appropriate use of shot sizes guides the viewer through the narrative. These film techniques, together with the narrative techniques we have been looking at, gave rise to Classical Hollywood Narrative. Alternative narratives and styles have rejected the classical narrative model. These alternative modes of film-making have often been politically motivated and have rejected ideologies associated with 'entertainment*. Peter Wollen's idea of 'counter-cinema' provides a useful way of analysing oppositional film-making strategies.

REFERENCES

Noel Burch, Theory of Film Practice (London: Seeker & Warburg/BFI, 1973).

Warren Buckland, Teach Yourself Film Studies (London: Hodder Headline, 1998). Richard Maltby, Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995). Bill Nichols (ed.), Movies and Methods (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1976). Bill Nichols (ed.), Movies and Methods // (Berkeley,CA: University of California Press, 1985).

Jean-Louis Comolli and Jean Narboni, 'Cinema/Ideology/Criticism1, in Bill Nichols (ed.), Movies and Methods (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1976). Pam Cook and Mieke Bernink (eds), The Cinema Book (2nd edn, London: BFI, 1999). Guy Hennebelle, 'Z-Movies, or what hath CostaGavras wrought?', in Cineaste, vol. 6, no. 2 (1974), pp. 28-31.

Thomas Schatz, The New Hollywood', in Jim Collins, Hilary Radner and Ava Preacher Collins

(eds), Film Theory Goes to the Movies (London and New York: Routledge, 1993). Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock (London: Paladin, 1978).

Richard Maltby, Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995). James Monaco, The Costa-Gavras syndrome', in Cineaste vol. 7, no. 2 (1976), pp. 18-22. Laura Mulvey, Visual pleasure and narrative cinema', originally in Screen, vol. 16, no. 3.

Christopher Vogler, The Writer's Journey (London: Boxtree Books, 1992).

(Autumn 1975), reprinted in Bill Nichols (1985). Steve Neale and Murray Smith (eds), Contemporary Hollywood Cinema (London: Routledge, 1997).

FURTHER

READING

Martin Barker, Comics: Ideology, Power and the Critics (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1989). David Bordwell, Janet Staiger and Kristin

Bill Nichols (ed.), Movies and Methods (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1976). Bill Nichols (ed.), Movies and Methods II (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1985). Thomas Schatz, Hollywood Genres: Formulas,

Thompson, The Classical Hollywood Cinema:

Filmmaking and the Studio System (New York:

Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960

Random House, 1981).

(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985). David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction (5th edn, New York: McGrawHill, 1998).

Christopher Vogler, The Writer's Journey (London: Boxtree Books, 1992). Martin Walsh, The Brechtian Aspect of Radical Cinema (London: BFI, 1981).

Film

152

Peter Wollen, Signs and Meaning in the Cinema (London: Seeker & Warburg 1969,

Text

VIEWING

1972,

1987) (also London: BFI, 1997). Peter Wollen, 'Godard and counter-cinema: Vent d'Est, originally in Afterimage, no. 4 (Autumn 1972); reprinted in Peter Wollen (1982). Peter Wollen, Readings and Writings (London: Verso, 1982).

FURTHER

as

A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Cinema (BFI, 1995). Visions of Light (The American Film Institute,

1992).

P A R T

3

Critical Approaches to Film

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Authorship Some General Reflections on Authorship 155 The Director as 'Author' 161 Poststructuralism and Recent Developments 170 Conclusion 171 Summary 172

[T]he cinema is the work of a single man, the director... A film is what you write on the screen. (Orson Welles, quoted in Wollen, 1969, p. 26) his chapter will examine the role of the director in relation to the complex structure of

T

finance, production, genre and stars. In particular, it will look at the influence of the

Cahiers du cinema articles in which Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut and others developed their 'politique des auteurs' and the subsequent application of these ideas to Hollywood cinema. As we have seen, film-making is almost always a complex team activity, and the idea of authorship may seem a strange one to use in such a collaborative medium. Nevertheless, as we shall see below, the idea of the author has been crucial to much thinking about film for at least the past four decades. But what is an author?

S O M E G E N E R A L A U T H O R S H I P

R E F L E C T I O N S O N

In common usage the idea of an author seems unproblematic: it is the person who writes; usually the word is used to refer to the writer of a published work, be it a book, an article or a letter. Yet even this is perhaps not as straightforward as it may seem. Many books are listed under the person who has 'edited' a series of chapters or articles by different writers; clearly the writers of the separate chapters/articles are the collective authors, but the person credited for the book is the 'editor', who may have written just a short introduction. Then there is the problem of copying and plagiarism - an important area for any student or writer to negotiate. If for the purposes of this chapter in this book I copy or rely heavily on someone else's book/text, then can I be said to be the 'author' of the chapter? If a student copies large chunks from, say, Bordwell and Thompson's Film Art in an essay, who is really the 'author' of the essay? Such plagiarism and stealing of other peoples' ideas and words have of course long been a subject of dispute: two quite different sorts of examples

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would be the controversy about 'was Shakespeare really the author of the plays that are attributed to him?' and the increasing numbers of long (and expensive) court cases (for example, that involving Bruce Springsteen) fought over alleged theft/plagiarism of relatively obscure fragments of music. Indeed, with the popularization of rap and sampling techniques since the 1980s, and with the increasing availability of written text, recorded sound and moving images through the Internet since the 1990s, another kind of major threat to common-sense ideas of authorship (and of course to the idea of copyright) has emerged. Of what, for example, is rapper Will Smith the Cauthor'? It is also to be noted, of course, that plagiarism in examination work is often punished with a 'Fail' grade. The idea of the writer/painter/artist as gifted creator/'author' of his/her work of art is in fact a comparatively recent one in the history of humanity. Though the names of a number of artists and writers have of course been recorded over the centuries, the idea of the 'gifted artist' as 'author' of her/his (historically usually 'his') work really dates from the Renaissance of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: before then the ultimate 'creator', or the source of inspiration, was most often seen as God (or some equivalent). Painters, sculptors and writers were principally seen as craftsmen. Though it comes at the end of a (very) long history of ideas about writing/literature, the idea that Mary Shelley was the author of Frankenstein, Dickens of David Copperfield and Brett Easton Lewis of American Psycho can now be taken for granted. By extension, it is fair to see Leonard Cohen as the 'author' of The Future, John Lennon of Imagine. These examples, however, begin to illustrate another kind of difficulty with the idea of an author. While obviously some authors/artists have created their work in private and with the aim of expressing their creativity (Rubens and Gauguin in painting perhaps, Virginia Woolf and Salman Rushdie in literature, to take a few random examples), this has certainly not been the norm. Most painting and sculpture before and after the Renaissance was commissioned either by the Church or by wealthy patrons - the 'artist' was thus basically doing a job for someone. Much music was also written/composed in the same way, and indeed many post-Renaissance composers, Mozart and Wagner among them, continued to rely on commissions and patronage to earn a living. With the development of capitalism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (and of course throughout the twentieth), a new kind of market was created, works of art became commodities, and the artist/author's name became a label which could be used to sell the product: a painting, a book, a theatre production. The idea of the author as gifted creative individual is thus (in the grand scheme of things) a relatively recent development which fits perfectly into the dominant capitalist culture which has developed most particularly in Europe and North America over the last two centuries.

P o s s i b l e ' A u t h o r s ' in Film All of this is relevant to film because cinema was born at the end of the nineteenth century into a set of developed capitalist economies in France, Britain and the United States. The new medium (see Chapter 7 for more detail) was almost immediately developed along capitalist lines as a commodified entertainment.

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The initial attraction of film was as a novelty, and film-makers (the distinction between director, producer, company, etc. only becomes useful after about 1907 with the development of the first film studios in North America) and exhibitors were not slow to exploit the entertainment and exploitative possibilities of the new medium. American nickelodeons between 1905 and 1915 ran continuous programmes, typically from 8 o'clock in the morning until midnight; programmes were often sensationalist and were advertised stridently. The emphasis was thus on the experience and the novelty - in much the same way that Virtual Reality arcades, computer games and indeed perhaps still the circus are advertised/consumed today - and the idea that individuals/artists could produce films was at first nowhere in sight.

F i l m companies If anything gained fame/notoriety during this period, it was the film company (for example, Edison, Vitagraph, Biograph), which would typically be the only 'credit' attached to the film. Indeed, until around 1910 the upstart film shows were not 'respectable' entertainment at all, and many of those appearing in the films were actors who could not secure work on the more legitimate stage. There was thus a certain stigma attached to acting in films, and indeed film producers were at first reluctant to publicize nascent 'stars' since this would lead to claims for higher wages.

/Actors The first credits for individual actors began to appear in 1910, and this has been seen as arguably the first step towards recognizing authorial agency in film. Perhaps it is not surprizing that actors were thus recognized before directors, since they are the most publicly visible personnel in film-making. But can an actor be seen as the 'author' of a film? If actors could then be seen by audiences as a film's most significant individuals - as of course they often still are - which other persons may be candidates for the 'authorship' of a film?

Exercise 9.1 List the major roles which have to be fulfilled by individuals in the making of a film. For each one, note in what ways that individual could be considered as the 'author' of the film. It may help to think about specific examples which could support your choices.

The earliest films (for example, those credited to Georges Melies, Edwin S. Porter, R.W. Paul) were made by very small groups of people: in the Lumiere tradition at least, the principal task was simply to operate the camera. While individuals continued to experiment

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(increasingly in other countries further and further away from France and the USA), a significant event was the setting up of Thomas Ince's New York Picture Company studios in California and the development of production control and scientific management practices aimed at the efficient production of films (see Chapter 1). The important innovation at Ince's studios was the division of film-making labour into specific tasks - tasks which had been roughly developed previously but which had never been so clearly defined within an industrial and management structure. While the size of Hollywood studios increased a hundredfold over the coming half-century, Ince inaugurated working methods which, though they evolved with time, were to become the bedrock of the American film industry. The principal personnel in film-making in the studio system - apart from the actors of course - became the studio head, the producer, the scriptwriter(s), the director, the cinematographer, the camera operator and the editor. Even in the studio set-up some of these functions were sometimes combined, and perhaps the most interesting contested task in the present context is that of the editor. Although it will become clear (if it is not already) which of these roles can best be and most usually is called 'authorial', a limited case (usually based on the evidence of relatively few films) can be made for some of the others.

Moguls It could, for example, be argued that studio production heads ('moguls') such as Irving Thalberg (at Loew's-MGM between 1924 and 1936) and David 0. Selznick (who worked at RKO and MGM between 1931 and 1936) stamped a recognizable 'identity' or 'look' on nearly all films produced in their studios during that particular period and so should be given (at least joint) 'author' status. It is reported that Thalberg in particular read all scripts, saw the rushes of all films, and oversaw the production of Universal and MGM films to an unprecedented degree. In common with other producers, Thalberg and Selznick also controlled the editing of most films (except those entrusted to the most experienced directors or those who dug their heels in and refused studio 'interference'). Thalberg's reputation is thus typified by his sacking Erich von Stroheim before the editing stage when, already a respected director, the latter had run massively over budget on the production of Foolish Wives in 1922. Selznick was also famed for the hundreds of memos he would send during the production of a single film.

Scriptwriters

/screenwriters

An obvious case could also be made for the authorial status of many scriptwriters. This is not only because scriptwriters actually write and are thus more easily thought of as 'authors', but also because scripts sometimes 'make' films. Among scriptwriters whose work has most often been seen as crucial to a film are Dalton Trumbo (Spartacus and Exodus, both 1960) and T.E.B. Clarke, who wrote the scripts for many of the Ealing comedies. Another interesting case is Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, part of the Merchant-lvory-Jhabvala 'authorial' team: an unusual case of joint 'authorship' being proclaimed through the triple-

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barrelled label attached to such films as A Room with a View (1985) and Howards End (1991). Richard Curtis' writing of Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and Netting Hill (1999) shows considerable 'authorial' continuity. The list could go on.

Authors of 'source' books The 'quality' adaptations of the Merchant-Ivory team also remind us that the author of the original written text can be given some author-status in a film in an effort to boost its cultural prestige: thus Bram Stoker's Dracula (Coppola, 1992), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Branagh, 1994) and William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet(Luhrmann, 1996).

Cinematographers Perhaps less obviously, the cinematographer and photographer (in early films these functions were often combined by one person) have also sometimes been hailed as 'authors', as having the greatest influence on how a film turns out. Thus most famously, Gregg Toland's work on Citizen Kane has often been seen as more significant than Orson Welles' wellpublicized direction (though it is true that Welles also co-scripted and starred in the film). The deep field photography, allied to the lighting systems and the camera angles and framing, were highly innovative at that time and, perhaps rather belatedly, Toland's is now being seen as the determining contribution. Another interesting example from film history is the camerawork of Karl Freund, whose experiments with 'das entfesselte Kamera' (the 'unchained' camera) in films such as The Last Laugh (Der letzte Mann) in 1924 were a revolutionary liberation of the camera from its previously ponderous movements. Thus, another arguably 'authorial' contribution. Many more recent films have also boasted the services of celebrated photographers: for example, (see Figure 9.1) Raoul Coutard worked consistently with Jean-Luc Godard between 1959 and 1967; Sven Nykvist was closely associated with Ingmar Bergman before going on to work with a number of other well-known directors. And although 'author' status never came his way, Billy Bitzer was the expert camera operator with whom D.W. Griffith (see below) made almost all 'his' films.

Editors Before we move to the role in film-making which has most consistently been associated with authorship, we should note the crucial role of the editor. While Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford, for example, insisted on tight control of the editing in 'their' films, countless other films have been edited, in effect, by studio personnel, by professional editing staff who would have been virtually unknown to those actually shooting the footage on set or out on location, or to the audience. Sometimes - indeed, more often than not in the major studios of the 1930s, for example - editing was personally supervised according to a strict set of guidelines by the producer and/or the studio head. Though the editor is not normally thought of as an author, then, it is nevertheless clear that the overall look/shape of a film depends enormously on the editing.

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Image Not Available

Figure 9.1

Godard's innovation, Sven Nykvists's photography: A Bout de souffle (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

Interesting case studies are provided by Performance (Cammell and Roeg, 1970) and Blade Runner. Warner Brothers executives hated Performance so much (Richard Schickel's review in Time: 'the most disgusting, the most completely worthless film I have seen. ..') that they tried to have it drastically re-edited, to the dismay of Cammell and Roeg. Only under pressure from Cammell did they agree for re-editing to be done by Frank Mazzola, to whom Cammell gives much of the credit for the eventual version. Performance was then deliberately released in the USA in the 'dead' month of August 1970 and sank without trace; in Britain it was released in January 1971, received good reviews and became a cult classic (see Figure 9.2). The editing of Blade Runner was delayed by endless controversy and argument especially among Ridley Scott (the director), Hampton Fancher and David Peoples (the scriptwriters), Michael Deeley (the producer) and the representatives of the financing companies (see Sammon, 1996). The film was first released in 1982 having been edited by Terry Rawlings, not without pressure and interference from Tandem, the 'completion bond guarantor' company. It was not until 1992 that Ridley Scott was able to re-edit the film and change the soundtrack, and Blade Runner: The Director's Cut was released. More extreme cases of editor-authorship are of course provided in cases where films depend largely or entirely on archive/found footage. A famous example of this was the case of the Soviet film-maker Esfir Shub, several of whose films, including Fall of the Romanov Dynasty (1927), were composed entirely of such pre-shot archive film. Apart from the (often unknown) camera operators who had shot the original material, therefore, she was the sole 'author' of her films. Interestingly, however, the Soviet film administrators Sovkino refused to recognize Snub's right as author.

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Image Not Available

Editing problems: Jagger and Fox in Performance (BFI Stills, Posters and Designs)

THE

D I R E C T O R

AS

' A U T H O R'

This brings us, finally, to the person most commonly accorded film 'author' status: the director. In the remainder of this chapter we shall trace the way in which the idea of directorial authorship developed, and particularly the debate which followed a series of articles about the auteur in the French journal Cahiers du cinema and which had a widespread effect on theories of authorship. It is not generally wise to overvalue the importance of single individuals. Whatever influence the individual has and whatever the 'effect' on history, the individual must always be seen in a historical, social and economic context. As we have noted, the idea of the gifted creative artist is historically a relatively recent one, and the concept indeed needs to be seen in the context of the Renaissance, of a gradual retreat from religious explanations of human agency, and of a slowly developing capitalist society.

D . W . G r i f f i t h as A u t e u r Nevertheless, the contribution of David Wark Griffith to film history was an important one. If he was in some way a 'genius', this was because his talents were ideally suited to the early industrial context of film-making: the early studio system which provided a tight production structure but in which innovation (especially technical) was vital and would benefit all concerned: the audience with the excitement of a developing entertainment/art form, the studio bosses/owners with increasing profits, and film-making employees with new technical and aesthetic challenges. For some, of course, this meant fame, and D.W. Griffith became famous.

Figure 9.2

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Griffith's innovative career is also considered elsewhere in this volume; the relevant point here is his development of the role of the director as person in overall charge of shooting a film. At the time of Griffith's debut in film-making in 1908 - he had drifted into the film industry when his career as a theatre actor failed to blossom - the directorial function was in its infancy; since the advent of cinema in 1895 the person who 'made' the film had been the camera operator. At the turn of the century, of course, editing was also quite rudimentary and consisted of the sequencing of 'tableaux', sometimes into a narrative progression, sometimes not. Although by 1906, following Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery, intercutting between scenes was being developed (in America and elsewhere), when Griffith began his career in 1908 editing was in its infancy. The camera remained static. The camera operator was concerned with light levels, with the distance of the camera from the actants/subject (framing) and indeed often with organizing what was happening in front of the camera (the mise en scene). Griffith was instrumental in changing this. Though constrained in the 450 films which he made between 1908 and 1913 by Biograph's insistence on one-reelers and the studio's reluctance to venture into 'serious'/'artistic' subjects, Griffith was nevertheless responsible for much innovative work on film language (see p. 130) and was the first to establish a reputation as director which rivalled those of stars of the day such as Theda Bara, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. Indeed, he was the first director to accord himself authorial status by placing his directorial credit before the names of well-known stars. Related to this, it is not insignificant that he took his own writing talents seriously: he soon began composing his own (sometimes rather pompous) inter-titles and placed his own logo on each intertitle for all to see. Griffith's status as star director enabled him to put pressure on Biograph to let him make longer and more ambitious films (Enoch Arden and Judith of Bethulia) but Griffith was unhappy with the company's marketing of these films, which did not help them to be successful. In 1913 he left Biograph and was able to complete two ambitious projects, Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916), both considered to be major landmarks of film art. After some financial hiccups, together with Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford he set up United Artists in 1919 and immediately directed Broken Blossoms, perhaps his last major film. Griffith was thus the first high-profile director who could be accorded 'author' status. If there have been many other directors since then who may be considered 'authors', the story has become complicated by an important distinction which can be seen to have some roots in the Griffith case: this is the distinction between 'art cinema' and the commercial or mainstream cinema of (initially) Hollywood.

Art Cinema Outside and in parallel with the industry of commercial cinema, art cinema has always been concerned less with entertainment and more with artistic experimentation and expression. Art cinema (like its cousins avant-garde and independent cinema) has been closely linked with the idea of film as an expression of the vision of an individual director-artist. Working

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outside industrial structures, some directors have made films entirely alone: Steve Dwoskin, for example, made films in the 1970s partly as social commentary but also as intensely personal (and political) documents. At the same time and into the 1980s, structural-materialist avant-garde artists such as Peter Gidal, Peter Kubelka and Michael Snow produced experiment